SIP Trunking and Fax - SMS Campaign Registry Requirements for Sangoma UCaaS and SIPStation SIP Trunking Customers
- Kelli Higdon
Applicability
If you do not currently nor intend to ever send or receive any SMS/MMS traffic to a US-based mobile number using one of Sangoma’s UCaaS or CPaaS platforms or our SIPStation service, this message does not apply to you and you may ignore it.
If you have already registered your brand and campaign using Sangoma’s Campaign Registry tool at Sangoma 10DLC Registration you will need to take additional action if you receive a notification that your campaign has been rejected. Further, Sangoma encourages you to visit Sangoma’s Campaign Registry tool to check on the current status of your campaigns.
If you have registered your brand and campaign via one of Sangoma’s Productivity Applications directly, Sangoma is presently working to update these tools to provide additional data collection fields for submission to The Campaign Registry. We will complete this work as expeditiously as possible.
New Information for January 2024 for Sangoma UCaaS and SIPStation SIP Trunking Customers
In a Nutshell (tl;dr)
The Campaign Registry is rejecting some previously-approved campaigns, and is now requiring additional or more correct campaign information, as they more strictly vet the previously-submitted campaign information.
Not all previously-approved campaigns are being rejected.
For the ones that are rejected, The Campaign Registry is requiring resubmission of the rejected campaigns, with additional and/or more correct campaign application information, and is charging new fees for re-vetting of the campaign as submitted.
Update for June 1st, 2023
Beginning June 1, 2023, some mobile network operators will begin imposing surcharges on Sangoma as well as all other voice providers, including our competitors, for any unregistered SMS/MMS that is sent to their mobile subscribers. This is an expansion of their previously announced Campaign Registry regulation. Because of this surcharge, the unpredictability of the surcharge amounts, the variability of the participating MNOs and MVNOs, and our desire not to burden customers with these fees in this rapidly changing environment, Sangoma has made the decision to no longer deliver any unregistered SMS/MMS to any US-based mobile subscribers.
In order to continue sending SMS/MMS to mobile subscribers whose carriers are members of The Campaign Registry, Sangoma customers must register their brands and campaigns prior to this June 1 deadline. Many customers have already done this. Registration of brands and campaigns will use the same TCR portal that Sangoma established in March at https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com
Failure to properly register brands and campaigns means that SMS and MMS traffic will not be delivered to US-based mobile subscribers.
Overview
Recently, as of late January, 2024, Sangoma has witnessed The Campaign Registry sending rejection notifications for previously-approved campaigns. The Campaign Registry has modified their enforcement of campaign requirements, in particular a “Call-to-Action” path, and is retroactively rejecting previously-approved campaigns.
Some users may receive a rejection notification. Some users may not receive this notification.
Users who have used our Campaign Registry tool website should check Sangoma’s Campaign Registry tool at Sangoma 10DLC Registration to see the status of their campaigns.
Users of our Productivity Apps that have an embedded registration function should, if they receive a rejection notification, re-submit the campaign via the embedded registration capabilities.
These actions by The Campaign Registry are not within the control of Sangoma, or our carrier partners.
Background
In 2021, Mobile carriers in the United states reorganized their SMS services as so-called 10-digit long code (10DLC) services to create a more reliable service for businesses (brands) to reach individual customers (end users).
Then, in 2022, these mobile carriers, in an attempt to eliminate unwanted text-based SPAM and phishing, organized an entity called The Campaign Registry (TCR). Participating Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, ClearSky, Interop Technologies, and USCellular.
The Campaign Registry requires registration by the companies that send A2P SMS messages and imposes fees on those companies for the use of 10DLC service.
The Campaign Registry interfaces with companies such as Sangoma, which provides a messaging platform via our UCaaS and SIPStation services. Through Sangoma’s new TCR Portal at https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com, Sangoma facilitates the creation and management of campaigns (outbound SMS and MMS messages) for our brand customers (you), and we supply the information that you provide us about your campaigns to The Campaign Registry for their verification.
When the campaign information is properly supplied, verified, and accepted by The Campaign Registry, TCR then allows the SMS and MMS message traffic that you pass through Sangoma to be delivered to end customer mobile devices.
If the campaign information is not properly supplied, verified, or accepted, SMS and MMS traffic that your users send using Sangoma UCaaS or SIPStation platforms may be blocked by the mobile carriers. Sangoma is not able to override or troubleshoot this blocking; campaigns must be properly registered beginning March 31st, 2023.
The Campaign Registry has required fees. Sangoma’s TCR Portal at https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com collects money from you, the user of Sangoma’s UCaaS and SIPStation platform, and remits that money to The Campaign Registry on both a one-off and monthly basis, depending on the campaign type. Sangoma applies a small markup on top of the TCR fees in order to support the ongoing maintenance of our TCR Portal and to offset payment fees.
These TCR required fees are not included in the charges that you otherwise pay to Sangoma for UCaaS and/or SIPStation services. They are a separate charge from Sangoma.
Your Actions to Take
As a Sangoma customer, upon receipt or reading of this message, if you are currently using or intend to send any SMS/MMS messages using your Sangoma UCaaS or SIPStation services, you must immediately empower one of your administrative users to visit the Sangoma TCR Portal at https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com and register your brand and your campaign(s).
A brand, as viewed by The Campaign Registry, is your company: specifically the one that will be sending the messages, not a partner or agent.
A campaign is any SMS/MMS messaging that you will send to an end user (a person’s mobile phone) from any of your Sangoma UCaaS or SIPStation services.
Sangoma’s TCR portal is available at: https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com
A video describing this tool is available here:
Sangoma SMS and the TCR
If you are a Sangoma Wholesale Services (formerly VoIP Innovations) customer, you may instead utilize the TCR portion of your Sangoma Wholesale Services portal.
For everyone else, when visiting the portal at https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com, you will need to:
Sign up for a new account. This account will not be related to any other Sangoma accounts. To register a new account, you will need the following:
your First Name
Last Name
Business Name
Phone Number
Address
City
State
Postal Code
Email Address
What type of Sangoma SMS Service you are using: SIPStation, Switchvox Cloud, PBXact, Business Voice (or Business Voice+), CommUnity (native-SMS only), or Other.
an Account Password that you will create
Log in using your new Account credentials.
Input your Billing information. For Campaign Registry fees, Sangoma bills only to a credit card that you will provide via this portal’s payment authorization screen, which redirects to a Sangoma payment processing website. Have ready your:
First Name
Last Name
Business Name
Phone Number
Address
City
State
Postal Code
Register your Brand. The Campaign Registry requires information about your business in order to ensure its legitimacy as they attempt to prevent fraudulent actors from sending SMS SPAM. See Brands. To register your brand you will need:
Legal Company Name (exact match, properly spelled, consistent with your Internal Revenue Service records)
Warning: If you have changed your business/legal name you may need to submit the appropriate IRS forms to ensure your company name and EIN are aligned.
DBA or Brand Name if different from legal name
Legal Form of the business (Government, Non-Profit, Private, Public)
Country of Registration
EIN or Tax Number/ID (9-digit EIN for US-based customers, Corporation # for Canadian-based customers)
EIN or Tax Number/ID-issuing Country
Address (consistent with your Internal Revenue Service or taxation records)
City, State/Province, and Postal Code
Business Vertical (Agriculture, Construction Materials and Trade Services, Education, Energy and Utilities, Entertainment, Financial Services, etc.)
Business Website
Stock symbol (for public companies only)
Stock exchange (for public companies only)
Contact Email address
Contact Phone Number
First Name
Last Name
A Reference ID (for your reference and ours)
Create an SMS Campaign. Once your Brand is listed as Verified, the Campaign Registry is satisfied that your business is a legitimate business. Next, you must register an SMS Campaign - see Campaigns.To do this, you will need a Verified Brand as well as the following information about your campaign:
Your description of the Campaign. Is it a marketing initiative to customers, or notifications to new customers, etc.?
A display name for the campaign to be used inside of the Sangoma tool
The Vertical for the campaign (Insurance, Legal, Manufacturing, Media and Communication, etc.) The vertical should typically align with the vertical used when creating the Brand.
A sample call-to-action and/or Message Flow, i.e. a written description of how someone opts-in, e.g. “Customers visit our website at www.example.com enter their phone number in a marketing form, and check a checkbox affirming that they agree to receive text messages from Example Company.”
The use case for the campaign - monthly fees differ depending on type of use case. Most Sangoma customers sending under 1000 messages/month will fall under “Low Volume Mixed”
The sub-use-case for the campaign
Two Sample Messages
And additional Campaign and Content Attributes as required by The Campaign Registry, such as whether or not there is a subscriber opt-in, or whether it’s age-gated content, or whether it includes links or phone numbers, etc.
Assign your DIDs to your campaign. Once your Campaign is Accepted. You must assign DIDs to your campaign. This happens in the Manage DIDs section.
For a video walkthrough of this process, please see:
It is extremely important that all of this information be completely correct. If any of this information is incorrect, the application will be rejected by The Campaign Registry. Each application carries with it an application fee that Sangoma will charge to you. If an application is rejected, you will receive an email, at the address used when registering for the TCR Portal, notifying you of the rejection and you will need to manually resubmit. If the campaign is rejected, Sangoma is not the vetting party and is not responsible for the correctness of your application.
The Campaign Registry requires time to register a company (brand) when creating a new campaign. As we approach the deadline, it is reasonable to assume that TCR will be inundated with requests and their time to approve a campaign will lengthen. Sangoma does not have any ability to speed up TCR registration processes nor to determine how far along in the process a request is. Do not wait until the last minute; act now!
The charges for TCR campaigns are not included in the charges that you otherwise pay to Sangoma for UCaaS and/or SIPStation services. This is a separate bill.
If you will not engage in any SMS/MMS messaging to US-based numbers, you do not need to use this portal or register any campaigns.
The charges for TCR campaigns cannot be billed to you outside of our portal at https://smscampaigns.sangoma.com. Sangoma has many billing systems for each of its various services. The TCR requirements are complex and frequently changing. To mitigate the risk of manipulating all of our billing systems on such a frequent basis, we are billing for TCR exclusively out of this portal, charged to the credit card you provide.
Responsibly Creating Campaigns
The group responsible for establishing standards for Messaging sent to mobile subscribers in the United States is the CTIA. The rules they define are linked from CTIA and the current version is available here in PDF Format. In order to send SMS messages to mobile subscribers, your adherence to the rules is required.
Important things to consider, when registering a campaign include:
Accuracy of your provided Phone Number and Email
Should match your web domain
Accuracy of your provided Website
Must be a valid, working website, not an invalid or parked domain
Must have a defined, linked privacy policy that indicates personally identifiable information is not sold for marketing purposes and that clearly defines what information may be collected
Any collection of phone numbers or data for SMS must have an Opt-In procedure / consent disclosure
Inclusion of a valid Call-to-Action / Message Flow
A clear and concise description of how users consent to receive messages
A correct campaign description
Valid sample messages
Valid content attribute declaration
Public URL shorteners are not allowed
SHAFT-C content
No Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, Cannabis