Do you need to register before texting customers from a business number?
Summary
Yes, if you text from an ordinary 10-digit U.S. number. The Campaign Registry (TCR) says any business using SMS on 10DLC to reach customers or employees has to register, including businesses that only send one-off messages. Your phone or messaging provider files a brand (your company) and a campaign (what you plan to send), and you pay one-time vetting fees plus a monthly fee per campaign that starts with a three-month commitment.
Who files it
Brands can't register with TCR themselves. The work goes through a Campaign Service Provider, which is often the same company that sells you phone service, and from there to the aggregators that connect to the wireless carriers. TCR is explicit that it does not review, approve, or reject campaigns. The providers in that chain do.
In practice you get a form in your phone system's admin portal. It asks for company details and a description of the messages, which TCR calls the use case. TCR's intro deck says campaign review can take anywhere from one to four weeks.
What it costs at three providers
RingCentral (RingEX) passes through third-party fees and says it adds none of its own:
- $19 for the brand application, charged whether the brand is accepted or rejected
- $15 to vet each campaign, charged again on every resubmission
- $1.50 a month for a low-volume campaign (fewer than 6,000 messages a day) or $10 a month for standard
TCR requires the three months to be paid from the day a campaign is submitted, and RingCentral notes you can't delete a campaign during that period even if it's rejected or suspended.
Vonage's API service charges $4.50 to register a brand and $41.50 for the standard vetting it requires before most campaigns can be created. Campaign vetting is $15 per event, and standard use cases run $10 a month, with low-volume mixed at $1.50. Bandwidth lists $9 per brand, $20 a month for a standard campaign, and $3 for low volume, with every use case except political under the initial three-month commitment. It lists no campaign vetting fee. Those two are developer platforms, not business phone plans, but they show how much the same registration can vary by who files it.
Texting without registering
RingCentral says a campaign must be registered and numbers assigned to it before you can use SMS. For unregistered numbers it "may attempt to deliver" messages at its discretion, charges $0.014 per local SMS instead of $0.0085, and doesn't count those messages against your monthly allotment. Twilio says unregistered 10DLC traffic draws additional carrier fees. Vonage publishes the carrier pass-through side: to T-Mobile, $0.003 per registered SMS versus $0.008 unregistered, and to AT&T, $0.003 versus $0.010.
Consent and STOP
The wireless industry group CTIA ties consent to the type of message. A reply to a customer who texted first needs only implied consent. Informational texts such as appointment reminders need express consent, which can be given by text, on a form, on a website, or verbally. Promotional texts need express written consent.
Opt-out instructions use the word STOP, and ordinary replies like stop, end, unsubscribe, cancel, quit, or "please opt me out" count too. The sender answers with one confirmation per campaign and then goes quiet. CTIA describes the document as a set of voluntary best practices, not a contract or a technical mandate.
Sources
- campaignregistry.com
- campaignregistry.com/wp-content/uploads/TCR-Intro-2026-v4_comp.pdf
- support.ringcentral.com/article-v2/TCR_registration_fees.html?brand=RingCentral&product=RingEX&language=en_US
- api.support.vonage.com/hc/en-us/articles/360058158511-10-DLC-Pricing-and-Fees
- bandwidth.com/support/en/articles/12823086-10dlc-fees
- twilio.com/docs/messaging/compliance/a2p-10dlc
- api.ctia.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/230523-CTIA-Messaging-Principles-and-Best-Practices-FINAL.pdf
Related on this site
- How do the big cloud phone services differ on price and features?
- What does a year of business phone service cost for a 10-person team?
- Why does the cheapest VoIP plan so often cost more than it looks?
- How much do call recording, texting, and AI features add to a business phone plan?
- Can you keep your business phone number when you switch providers?
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.