10DLC (10-Digit Long Code)
A 10-digit long code (10DLC) number is a US-specific, carrier-sanctioned, 10-digit phone number that’s used for business messaging. You might also see 10DLC referred to as an approved A2P (application-to-person) long code.
10DLC is great for use cases that don’t require very high throughput, including:
- Two-factor authentication
- Appointment reminders
- Airline-related updates
- Rideshare updates
- Any small business that needs a local presence
Using a 10-digit long code gives you lower fees and lower risk of untrusted traffic than short codes.
What throughput should you expect on 10DLC?
10DLC potentially has higher messaging throughput than P2P (person-to-person) long code traffic – giving you up to (and even above) 30 TPS (transactions per second) as opposed to the 1TPS that P2P long codes give you. The TPS you receive depends on your brand and campaign meeting various criteria set by carriers. Carriers make their own assessments on what TPS you should receive in different ways, and your campaign will be limited by the lowest TPS made available to you.
An example of a use case likely to receive a high trust score would be SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA). This is because consumers have asked for this traffic, they respond to it, and it’s safe and necessary.
Your throughput may also be based on your vetting score.
How do you get vetted?
Every carrier does this a little differently.
- Verizon is not doing any vetting currently but will instead allocate throughput in much the same way as it does for shortcodes.
- AT&T will provide a base TPS based on the message class assigned after you submit your campaign to the Campaign Registry.
- T-Mobile (Sprint) is basing throughput on a daily messaging quota for the brand and not the individual campaign. This means if a brand has more than one campaign, the daily messaging quota is split between them.
