As of January 1, 2024, the FCC requires verification for all custom toll-free numbers before sending text messages. This industry-wide change ensures compliance and helps protect consumers. Unverified numbers can only be used for outbound caller ID; text messaging will be unavailable.
Key Benefits of Verification:
Legitimacy: Confirms your business as a real entity.
Engagement: Leads to higher member engagement due to increased trust and deliverability.
Verification Process: A Step-by-Step Guide
To ensure a smooth verification process, please carefully complete all required fields in the verification form. "N/A" is not an acceptable answer. Incomplete information will cause delays.
Complete the Form: Answer all questions on the verification form thoroughly and accurately. The form will request the following information (see details below):
Business & Contact Information:
Legal Business/Entity Name
Website URL
Your Name, Email, and Phone Number
Country- United States - US
Physical Address
Messaging Use Case Information:
Estimated Monthly Message Volume
Opt-in Type
Use Case Categories
URLs of Opt-in prior consent Policy Images/Screenshots
Use Case Description
Production Message Sample
Additional information
Submit the Form: Once you've completed all fields, submit the form.
Check Your Status: Monitor the verification status of your number. It can take between 12 and 72 hours for your status to change. Check the status under your custom phone number settings.
Activation: Your number must have an "Active" status before you can send text messages.
Detailed Information Required for Verification:
Here's a breakdown of the information you'll need to provide on the verification form:
A. Ensure Business Information is Accurate and Verifiable
Business Name: Ensure your business name, website, and email domain match and are publicly accessible.
Use an official business email rather than a freemail account (e.g., use yourcompany.com instead of gmail.com).
Make sure the submitted business details align with your legal business name. Some companies may have a legal entity name such as “Company Name LLC” as well as a different public name known by the customers. The latter is referred to as the Doing Business As or DBA. If this applies to your case, please include both names in the request (include DBA & legal name in the same legal name field). If the DBA name is too long to fit, you can add it to the Additional information field at the end of the request.
Physical Address: The physical address of the end business. Include the full street address, city, state, and zip code. Example: "123 Main St, Seattle, WA, 98119" (Approved), "N/A" (Rejected).
Website URL: The website of the end business. If the business doesn't have a traditional website, social media links (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) are acceptable, but they must be public. Examples:
www.johnscoffeeshop.com(Approved),facebook.com/johnscoffeeshop(Approved if public),yourcompany.com(Rejected unless you are the end business).Tips:Make sure the following do not apply: site is private, password-protected, or otherwise inaccessible or the URL is misspelled or does not match the business name.
Your Name, Email, and Phone Number: Contact information for the person submitting the verification request.
B. Messaging Use Case Information:
General considerations for all forms of opt-in
Opt-in should not be embedded with other agreements (e.g., embedded deep in your Terms of Service or Privacy Policy).
Consent cannot be shared across multiple use cases (e.g., receiving order confirmation and receiving coupons as marketing offers are two separate use cases requiring 2 different opt-in consents). You cannot mix and match or use 1 opt-in consent for both. But you can group consent within a single use case (e.g. coupon alerts and new product launches would be considered as two marketing use cases that can be bundled together.)
Opt-in must be branded, which means that the name of the end business must be mentioned in it. This could be written or through a display of the company logo.
Opt-in cannot be shared across businesses or sold to third parties.
Estimated Monthly Message Volume: Your estimated monthly message volume. Choose the closest value from the following options: 10; 100; 1000; 10000; 100000; 250000; 500000; 750000; 1000000; 5000000; 10000000+. Provide an estimate for your current volume or, if you expect growth, your volume in 6 months.
Opt-in Type: The method you use to obtain consent to send text messages (e.g., Web/Online Opt-In, Verbal Opt-in, Paper Opt-in Mobile QR opt-in text based Keyword Opt-in).
URLs of Opt-in Policy Images/Screenshots: Provide URLs to images or screenshots that clearly show your opt-in process and policy. This could be a screenshot of your website form, a photo of a sign-up sheet, etc. The documentation must match the Opt-in Type you select.
Use Case Categories: Select the category that best describes how you will use the toll-free number (e.g., Marketing, Appointment Reminders, Customer Service).
Use Case Description: Clearly defining your use case is critical for approval. The more detailed information you provide for the use case/ summary the better. Most commonly, requests are rejected because the use case description is vague or incomplete.
A good example of use case is “This number will be used to send out promotional offers and coupons to the customers of [Company Name]”. Or “This number will be used to send out order confirmation and delivery information to the customers or [Company Name]”
A bad example is “Marketing” or “Status”
Please note that some use cases such as communications related to multi-level marketing, illegal substances, debt collection, etc. are prohibited by carriers and will be automatically rejected.
Toll-Free Number Verification Categories
Pending: Submitting your completed verification form, will place your Toll-Free number(s) in a Pending Verification status if all data is valid and meets the standards.
Rejected: verification forms depending on reason have 6 days to be updated/ corrected and resubmitted for approval.
Verified: Upon a successful review of your verification submission and carrier approval, your number(s) will be moved to "Verified" status. Verified numbers have full access to begin sending Text/SMS Toll-Free traffic toward all major networks in the US and some in Canada.
Pro Tip: Prepay for 12 months to avoid potential payment failures that could interrupt your service and require you to repeat the verification process.