Register your local phone number to enable texting

Due to a new government-mandated regulation, all U.S. and Canadian customers are required to register their brand and SMS campaign(s).

What is the new regulation?

DEADLINE: Carriers will begin blocking unregistered outbound SMS on October 1, 2024, with all unregistered outbound messages blocked by December 1, 2024. Register using the instructions below to avoid service disruption.

SMS registration is an industry-mandated process created by carriers and service providers in response to FCC requirements to protect consumers (your customers) from spam and fraud. The intent of registration is to ensure message senders are legitimate businesses sending messages to contacts who have consented to receive them. Businesses must now register their phone number(s) with carriers and a third-party organization known as The Campaign Registry (TCR) to send text messages. Grasshopper allows you to submit your registration directly via our customer admin portal - see below for step-by-step guidance.

Toll-free phone numbers are also subject to registration through a different process. Learn more here.

What is TCR?

The TCR ensures compliance with regulations passed by Congress and the FCC to protect customers from robocalls and spam texts and make consumer opt-ins and opt-outs for texting an industry standard. Learn more.

Who does this impact?

Who has to do this?

Registration is required for US and Canadian phone numbers to send text messages of any kind to U.S. customers, including conversational and 1-1 communications. This impacts all U.S. and Canadian customers; however, if the businesses are outside the U.S. and Canada and send a message to U.S. or Canadian customers, they will also be impacted. 

I don't send bulk messages. Do I still need to register?

Yes, registration is required for all SMS traffic regardless of volume or type of messages. You must register even if you only use messaging to communicate 1-1 with your contacts and do not send bulk messaging campaigns. During registration, you will be asked to share details about the types of messages you send (your use case) and the expected volume of messages.

What happens if I don't register?

Currently, customers who have not completed registration incur SMS/MMS usage charges at a rate of $0.012 per sent or received SMS message and $0.021 per sent or received MMS message. However, carriers have announced they will block unregistered messaging entirely later this year. Grasshopper recommends you submit your registration by October 1st to ensure you can continue to send and receive text messages.

How do I register?

Grasshopper has made it easy: You can register with TCR in the admin portal. You will need to register your company as a brand and then register your texting campaigns. Please note that registration through the TCR can take a few weeks to process.

Step 1: Register your company as a brand

Create a brand by registering your company with the TCR. A brand is known as “who” is sending a message. This is usually your business or company name.

Before you begin:

If you are a new customer, we recommend completing your registration as soon as possible to ensure minimal texting disruption for your phone number(s). If you wish to order or port additional local numbers to your account, they must be associated with an approved campaign registration before texting is enabled.
You will need your business tax I.D., EIN, or B.N. If you do not have a tax I.D. or EIN, you’ll need to register for one with the IRS (if you’re in the U.S.) or a B.N. with the CRA (if you’re in Canada). It is not currently possible for sole proprietor businesses without an EIN / business tax I.D. to register, but Grasshopper is actively working with its carrier to support that use case in the future.
If you recently obtained your EIN, please wait 4 weeks after receipt of your new EIN before attempting SMS registration. If you submit SMS registration too quickly, your new EIN may not yet be available in the IRS database, causing the verification of your brand (business) to fail.

Important: Your legal business name, business information, and Tax ID Number/EIN must match exactly, or your application will automatically be rejected.

Each submission is charged registration fees, whether successful or unsuccessful. If your registration is rejected for any reason, you will be charged another $15 USD to resubmit. Your carrier charges us those fees, and we will reflect those charges on your next invoice.

Sign in at https://nuui.us.grasshopper.com/carrierregistration.
Select Register Brand.
Enter the following company information:
- Company Name: The name your business is operating under and sending SMS from.
- Industry: Enter your company’s industry.
- Support Email: Enter your support email address.
- Support Phone: Enter your support phone number.
- Website: Enter your business website.
- Organization Type: Choose your organization type from the options.
- Tax Country: Enter the country where your business is registered.
- Tax ID Number/EIN: This is the business registration number assigned to your business by a federal agency. If your company is registered in the U.S., the IRS provides the EIN/tax ID documentation. You must enter the EIN exactly how it appears, including the dash: 12-3456789. If your company is registered in Canada, you must enter only the first nine digits of the alphanumeric Canadian Business Number (B.N.). Do not enter the letters or the numbers following the letters.
- Legal Company Name: This entry must match how your business is registered with the corresponding federal agency that issues your business registration number (EIN, tax I.D., or B.N.). If your company is registered in the U.S., you will have received an IRS document (e.g., IRS SS-4). Refer to the document section containing your business name and address.
  Tip: On the SS-4, your legal company name is the first line only. On the LTR147C, your legal company name is everything that appears above your address (this could be 1 or 2 lines).
- Business address: Enter the street address, city, state, country, and zip/postal code exactly as it is listed on the document you received confirming your business registration number/EIN/tax ID/B.N. (e.g., IRS SS-4 or LTR147C). Even minor formatting discrepancies (such as using the abbreviation "ST" when the address listing says "STREET") can cause verification to fail.
Carefully review and verify that the information is correct.
Select Submit Brand.

The brand registration process may take a few hours. You can check the status of your brand registration at https://nuui.us.grasshopper.com/carrierregistration. Possible statuses are: In Progress, Verified, Unverified, and Failed. If your brand registration has failed, we will retry it and send you an email confirmation upon the status change. Each submission is charged registration fees, whether successful or unsuccessful.

Results: The registration process is not complete until your register your SMS, and your submission to the carriers has been reviewed.

Step 2: Register your SMS campaign(s)

Once brand registration is complete, you will need to register your SMS campaign using the steps below. An SMS Registration (10 D.L.C. campaign) contains information about your intended use case and traffic type. You can associate one or more phone numbers to a campaign or create multiple campaigns.

If you are not already, sign in at https://nuui.us.grasshopper.com/carrierregistration.
Select Register SMS.
Enter the following information:
- Phone Number: Assign the phone numbers that you will use for the campaign that you are registering.
- SMS volume: Estimate your daily volume of SMS messages
  - More than 6000 texts/day: Frequent text messages to customers (i.e., daily or weekly).
  - Less than 6000 texts/day: A few text messages to customers (i.e., monthly).
- Description: Provide information about what types of messages you'll be sending and for what purpose. Be sure to list every type of message you plan to send (e.g. appointment reminders, order updates, customer support, etc). Learn about ineligible use cases.
- Embedded phone number: Check the box if the messages will contain an embedded phone number as part of the campaign.
- Embedded link: Check the box if the messages will contain an embedded link as part of the campaign.
- Direct lending or loan arrangement: Check the box if the campaign includes any content related to direct lending or other loan arrangements.
- Age-gated content: Check the box if the campaign includes any age-gated content.
- Number pooling: Check this box if you intend on using 50+ numbers.
- Example message: Enter an example of a message that will be sent as part of the campaign.
- How do your contacts opt in/out for messaging?: Describe how you obtain your customers’ consent to text them. (For example, when filling out a contact form on your website customers can check a box to agree or decline to receive messages from you.) Include a link directly to the page of your website where you collect opt-in information.
- Privacy policy: Provide a link to your privacy policy describing what information you collect from customers, how you use it, and whether you share it with any third parties.
  Note:
  
  Selling or sharing your customer info for third party marketing / promotional purposes will result in your registration being rejected.
  
  Even if you share customer info only for legitimate business purposes, mobile opt-in/messaging consent must be excluded from that sharing.
Carefully review and enable the check box to confirm.
Check the box if the phone number will not be used for affiliate marketing.
Select Submit.
Repeat for other SMS campaigns.

Results: The SMS campaign vetting process can take 10-30 business days. You can check the status of your SMS registration at https://nuui.us.grasshopper.com/carrierregistration . The possible statuses are: In Progress, Carrier Approved, and Failed. If your SMS campaign registration has failed, view Common rejection reasons from Troubleshooting below, correct any mistakes, and resubmit. You will be charged an additional registration fee.

Troubleshooting

Common rejection reasons

Below is a list of common rejection reasons with guidance to avoid rejection.

Insufficient Opt-in / Call to Action (CTA)	Opt-in must be explicit, and customers must have the option to opt in or out:"I agree to receive texts" or “I do not wish to receive texts”. Describe the types and frequency of messages they can expect to receive if they opt in. Explain how they can opt-out later if they no longer wish to receive messages (by replying “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE”). Clearly state that opt-in applies to texts from your business only, not any third parties (you don't share customer information). Include a link to your privacy policy on the same page. Tip: Learn more about opt-in and opt-out from our blog post.
Opt-out message missing or inadequate	In the Example Message field of your registration form, any example of a proactive message that is not sent in reply to a customer inquiry (for example, an appointment reminder) should include opt-out language. Opt-out language must be clear and include standard terms like "stop," "end," or "unsubscribe." For example, "Reply STOP to opt out of future messages." Opt-out terms must be separated by spaces in the messages. View the section What is opt-in and opt-out? from FAQs for more information about opt-in and opt-out.
Your website or example messages include prohibited content	Ensure that prohibited content, which includes CBD, cannabis, sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco, is not present in your example messages or on your website or social media presence. Your business must not fall under specific categories of activities considered "ineligible use cases." Learn about ineligible use cases Note: Reviewers will search for your business' website even if you do not provide one and will reject your verification if they find prohibited content.
Missing or noncompliant privacy policy	You must have a privacy policy that is easily accessible to your customers anywhere you ask them to provide personal information (e.g., if you use a contact form on your website, it should include a link to your privacy policy). Your privacy policy must describe what data you collect from customers, how (on your website, via email, etc.) you use the information, and whether you share it with any third parties. If you share or sell data to 3rd parties for marketing purposes, your registration will likely be rejected. Assuming you don’t share/sell information for marketing or promotional purposes, you should state that explicitly in your policy. Information sharing is permitted for legitimate business purposes (for example, to facilitate shipping, payment processing, or other essential business operations). However, you should specify that mobile opt-in and consent are excluded from any sharing mentioned in the policy; opt-in information is never shared. Note: Learn more about privacy policy guidelines in our blog post.
Lack of a website or online presence	A website is preferred, but if you don't have one, you should provide a link to your business's social media presence. Reviewers will look for an online presence to verify your business and reject your submission if they can't find one.
Inconsistencies in registration information, website, or message samples	The type of message you select, "Marketing" or "Informational", must match the example messages you provide. Your example messages and description of how you use messaging must align with your business website or other online presence.

Why am I getting an error saying my Tax ID doesn’t match the business name or type?

While we can’t know exactly the reason for the mismatch, some common issues are:

Special characters. The IRS doesn’t allow special characters in business names and accepts only: alpha (A-Z), numeric (0-9), hyphen (-), and ampersand (&).
INC or LLC: The registered name has or is missing a trailing “INC” or “LLC”. US customers can call the IRS helpline to verify their registered business name: +1 (800) 829-4933. When calling, first choose your language, then “1” for EIN questions, then “3” for “I have an EIN”.

FAQs

What fees are associated with registering my brand and SMS campaigns?

The registration process involves a $19 USD in one-time fees ($4 to register your company with TCR and $15 for carriers to vet your campaign) plus a fixed monthly fee to TCR based on the campaign registered (see table below). If your campaign is rejected by the vetting carrier due to missing or inaccurate information, the $15 fee will apply for each attempt. Grasshopper passes on these one-time and monthly fees without markup.

Per campaign fixed monthly fees:

Low volume campaign (Less than 6000 texts/day)	$1.50 per month
Standard volume campaign (More than 6000 texts/day)	$10.00 per month
Sole proprietor campaign (only applies if you do not have a tax ID/EIN)	Campaign type currently not supported... coming soon.

Does this impact my phone calls too?

This does not have any impact on your voice call features, ONLY texting.

Do I need to register each of my business phone numbers?

Yes, and multiple numbers can be registered at the same time. During registration, select all the local phone numbers you'd like to register. Follow the steps in this article to register your local phone number(s) for texting compliance. Toll-free phone numbers are also subject to registration through a different process. Learn more here.

I thought texting was included with purchase, why do I have to go through this extra registration?

Registration is an industry-wide requirement enforced by the wireless carriers who deliver messaging traffic to consumers. Like you, Grasshopper, and other service providers must comply with the industry's restrictions on unverified traffic.

Is  Grasshopper  going to switch off my text messaging capabilities if I haven’t registered an SMS campaign by a specific date?

Grasshopper does not limit your messaging, but carriers currently penalize unregistered phone numbers with per-message fees and reduced deliverability. Later this year carriers will block unregistered messaging entirely, which means you will not be able to send or receive text messages unless you have an approved registration on file. This is an industry-wide requirement not specific to Grasshopper.

I just obtained a new EIN with the IRS, how long should I wait to register?

The TCR has indicated that processing may take up to 4 weeks before the EIN is available in the IRS database for SMS registration.

What is opt-in and opt-out?

A key motivation for the SMS registration process is to ensure message senders have obtained permission to message their contacts before sending texts. As part of your registration, you must demonstrate that you give your contacts the opportunity to “opt-in” or “opt-out” of communications with you. Grasshopper recommends including opt-in/opt-out language on your website wherever you collect contact information from your customers/prospects. You can learn more about various opt-in methods from our blog post.

Note: If you do not currently have an opt-in process, you must create one before submitting your SMS registration. This is required for all registrations, even if you do not send marketing messages and only use texting to reply to your customers.

Opt-in example: When customers complete a contact form on the website, they are asked if they agree to receive text messages to the phone number they provided. They can check a box to indicate they agree. The opt-in language should specify the type and frequency of messages to be sent.

“I agree to receive text messages from [Business Name] at the phone number provided above. Message frequency varies and will include [Types of messages: appointment reminders, order updates, promotional deals, etc.]. Reply “Stop” or “Unsubscribe” to opt-out at any time.”

Opt-out example: In addition to the checkbox agreeing to receive messages, there should be a checkbox customers can select if they don’t want to receive messages.

“I do not wish to receive text messages from [Business Name]”.

Note: Even if a customer initially opts in to text communications, they should be able to opt-out if they change their mind later. You should include instructions for how to do this as part of the opt-in option (as shown in the opt-in example above).

Tips for success:

You must offer your contacts both opt-out options demonstrated above: opt-out at the time they provide their contact information, and the ability to change an initial ‘opt-in’ to an ‘opt-out’ later.
When creating your opt-in process please ensure:
- The opt-in/opt-out language is easy to understand and included wherever you gather customer contact information
- The contact can choose whether to opt-in or opt-out
- You clearly indicate the message sender and what kinds of messages will be sent
- A link to your privacy policy, describing the customer information you collect and how you use it, is included on the same page as opt-in/opt-out language