To combat spam and scams via SMS and MMS messages, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) now requires registration for messages sent from apps to phones in the U.S. and Canada. The FCC order to the carriers was released in late March 2023 and can be found here. The carriers have responded by introducing additional carrier fees to encourage quick registration. They have also started setting dates for completely blocking unregistered traffic.

In order to comply with this rule and to optimize deliverability, all Ontraport accounts with an SMS number must register as soon as possible.

Due to the new regulations, the old registration method via the Sender Profile in your account is no longer valid. The new method requires that we collect additional information and new fees, and send them to the appropriate parties for full registration.

The registration process may take up to 1-2 weeks, though they are working on increasing approval speed. Please keep an eye on your email inbox. If registration fails, you’ll want to re-register quickly. As you can imagine, Twilio is inundated with these requests right now due to fast approaching compliance deadlines.

You can still send SMS/MMS messages in the meantime. Just be aware that your per message pricing and carrier fees for SMS/MMS messages might be slightly higher while you’re unregistered.

There is nothing you need to do at this time. This type of registration is currently only for people sending SMS or MMS to the U.S. or Canada.

Please note: If you are outside of the U.S. or Canada, we recommend researching your local rules. Many countries may start implementing similar laws.

Other carriers have not announced when they will start charging fees and blocking unregistered traffic. However, due to the FCC’s guidelines, we expect all carriers to implement these restrictions by January 1, 2024.

Once your registration and campaign vetting is accepted, we will bill your account for those fees. We will bill the recurring campaign use case fee(s) at the same time as your monthly account charges. (If you are an annual subscriber, we will still bill monthly but on the same day as your billing date.)

To remove the monthly campaign use case fee, simply delete all of the SMS numbers in your account.

Ensure your business information and contact information match your business registration/license details. Enter a responsible party such as the CEO in the contact information section.

Refrain from spammy content in the sample message.

Refrain from marketing jargon in the sender compliance message and include one of the following keywords in all caps: STOP, STOPALL, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END or QUIT.

Yes, you can continue to send messages as usual. However, most of your messages will likely be blocked by the carriers.

For businesses registered in the United States, EIN stands for Employer Identification Number, commonly referred to as Federal Tax ID number. For businesses registered in Canada, CCN means Canadian Corporation Number (CCN). Other countries have similar business registration types.

You'll see the specific fees for your registration type on the next page. Once your application is approved, you’ll be charged a one-time brand registration fee, a one-time campaign vetting fee and a monthly fee for your campaign use case. Normal SMS message segment and carrier fees still apply. (Fee amounts vary depending upon the carrier.)

Brand registration fee (one time): This establishes and registers the company or entity sending messages.

Campaign vetting fee (one time): This is a fee for a third party to review your campaign use case details. Note: If your application is rejected, additional campaign vetting fees apply.

Campaign use case fee (monthly recurring): This fee allows the continued relationship and verification between the brand and the campaign.

Carrier fees (per message segment send): Each cellular carrier will charge fees based on whether you are registered or unregistered at their own discretion.

As of August 31, 2023 most unregistered traffic is being blocked by most carriers. The cost per message and carrier fees are still charged when this happens.

You can use one of the following tools to figure out which customers are on which carrier: https://www.carrierlookup.com/ or https://www.twilio.com/code-exchange/lookup. Carrierlookup.com is easy to navigate and can be used for determining U.S. carriers. For $0.01 per SMS number, they provide a report on which carrier the SMS number is tied to. If you’re concerned about how many contacts have T-mobile as their cellular carrier (given that they have the lowest SMS send limit), you could use that website to find out. Here’s a video on how to use carrierlookup.com.

Review your account usage for current sending volumes. Keep your billing date in mind. For example, if you’re halfway through your billing cycle, multiply the SMS sends by two for a monthly estimate and then divide by 30 for a daily estimate.

If you plan to send more than 3k message segments per day (such as for a launch) and you have an EIN, CCN or country equivalent and a valid business address in the U.S. or Canada, choose Low Volume (Answer yes to "Does your business have an EIN or equivalent business registration?").

Note: Account usage (Profile icon > Account > Account Usage > SMS) displays your total message segments. Currently, Dashboard trends (sent and inbound) and broadcast history display the number of messages, NOT total message segments.

If you’d like a report on the exact number of SMS/MMS messages sent in the last 30-60 days, email support@ontraport.com with your account number and the time frame for the report you need.

Not currently. In the future, we will provide a warning on SMS/MMS broadcasts that might approach or exceed your daily limit. This requirement was implemented very quickly so we don’t have these types of notifications in Ontraport right now. We understand the importance of this type of notification, and we’ll continue working on it.