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 now 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 the Grasshopper 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.

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.

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?

Carriers will block all outbound messages from unregistered phone numbers by December 1, 2024. If you don’t have an approved SMS registration on file, you will be unable to send any outbound messages, including Instant Response messages. Inbound (received) messages will continue to incur per-message fees of $0.012 per SMS message and $0.021 per MMS message.

How do I register?

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

Pre-registration Checklist

To complete registration, you must have the following prerequisites in place:

A business tax ID or EIN issued at least 4 weeks before registration submission. If you don’t have one, 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).
A working business website.
A process for getting your contacts’ consent to receive text messages from you (an “Opt-In” process). Opt-in language requesting customer consent for texting must be present on any page of your website that collects phone numbers. View “What is opt-in and opt-out?” in the FAQ section below for more information.
A privacy policy that explains how you collect and use your contacts’ data and your practices related to data sharing. The policy must be publicly available on your website and linked to any pages where customer data is collected.

Step 1: Register brand

Create a brand by registering your company. A brand is known as “who” is sending a message. This is usually your business or company name. Each brand registration form submission is charged a one-time registration fee of $4. If your registration is rejected and needs to be corrected and resubmitted, you’ll be charged another $4 to resubmit.

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

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. Private profit means your business is for-profit but is not traded on any stock exchange. Public profit means your business has a stock symbol and is publicly traded on a stock exchange.
- 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. Wait at least 4 weeks after receiving a new EIN to register your brand to ensure your information is updated in the IRS/CRA database.
- 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. Each submission is charged a $4 registration fee, whether successful or unsuccessful.

Results: Once your brand registration has been approved, you can proceed to Step 2 (SMS campaign registration). Please note that your registration is incomplete until your brand and SMS campaign registrations are approved.

Step 2: Register your SMS campaign(s)

Once brand registration is complete, you must register your SMS campaign using the steps below. The SMS campaign registration contains information about how you plan to use messaging. While it’s possible to create a separate SMS campaign registration for each of your phone numbers, most Grasshopper customers include all of their Grasshopper phone numbers within one SMS campaign registration.

Important: Each SMS campaign registration form submission is charged a one-time vetting fee of $15. If your SMS registration is rejected and needs to be corrected and resubmitted, you’ll be charged another $15 for resubmission (passed directly to carriers).

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 a list of the types of messages you plan to send from the phone numbers you are registering (e.g., appointment reminders, order updates, customer support, marketing or promotional messages, etc.) and the estimated frequency you will send messages to a typical customer (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).
- 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: Refer to the message description field above, and provide a specific example for each type of message you listed in the description. For example, if you will use messaging to schedule appointments and send coupon codes, provide an example message for each scenario.
  Important: Example messages should clearly identify the sender (your business), and any messages sent proactively (not in direct response to a customer question) should include opt-out language (“reply STOP to unsubscribe”).
- 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 to or decline to receive your messages. If opt-in is done via your website, include a link directly to your website page where you collect phone numbers and opt-in information. If you collect opt-in outside of your website, you must attach proof in the form of a document or screenshot (see “proof of opt-in” below).
- Proof of Opt-In: You must provide proof if your opt-in is only done outside your website. For example, if you collect opt-in consent via a service agreement or contract, attach a copy of the document.
- 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. Grasshopper cannot provide legal advice on specific privacy policy language, but various sources offer privacy policy templates online.
  Note:
  
  Your policy should explicitly state that mobile opt-in information and consent are not shared with anyone for any purpose, and are excluded from any other sharing you may be doing.
  
  Selling or sharing your customer info for third party marketing / promotional purposes will result in your registration being rejected.
- Terms of Service: Provide a link to your Terms of Service, if applicable. The terms of service should contain an SMS disclosure that includes the types of messages consumers can expect to receive, texting cadence, message and data rate notices, privacy policy links, and opt-out instructions.
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.

Results: After submission, your SMS campaign is sent to downstream aggregators and carriers for review. Most registrations are reviewed within 7-12 business days. You can check the status of your SMS registration at https://nuui.us.grasshopper.com/carrierregistration.

If your registration status is listed as ‘Failed’ or ‘Declined,’ you will need to correct your registration and resubmit based on the reason code displayed. See the Troubleshooting section of this article for more information on common rejection reason codes and how to address them. A $15 vetting fee will apply to each submission, whether successful or unsuccessful, and is passed directly to carriers.

Troubleshooting

Common rejection reasons

Below is a list of common rejection reasons with guidance to avoid rejection. If your registration is rejected, you’ll receive an email notification and will see a status of “Failed” or “Declined” in your customer admin portal, along with a reason code. Contact our support team for assistance in resubmitting your registration.

Missing or noncompliant opt-in / call to action Reason codes include: 803 804 806 862	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 Reason codes include: 851 861	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 (not eligible for resubmission) Reason codes include: 709 708 705 704 703 701	Ensure that prohibited content, which includes CBD, cannabis, sex, hate, and gambling, 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.
Failure to age-gate restricted content (eligible to resubmit) Reason codes include: 702 706 707	If your website contains content related to alcohol, tobacco, or firearms, it must be properly age-gated. The best practice would be a manual entry of MM/DD/YYYY birth-date collected prior to accessing the website / opt-in page.
Missing or noncompliant privacy policy Reason codes include: 805 809 851 852	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. Your policy must explicitly state that you do not share mobile opt-in data or consent 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. Include a “message and data rates may apply” disclosure in the policy. Include instructions for how to opt out of messaging (by replying STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE) in the policy. Note: Learn more about privacy policy guidelines in our blog post.
Lack of a website or online presence Reason codes include: 804 807	Reviewers will look for an online presence to verify your business and reject your submission if they can't find one. Provide a link to a valid, working website that matches the information you share about your business in the registration form. If you don’t have a business website, we strongly recommend you create one as that is the easiest way for reviewers to verify your business, and the most likely to be accepted for registration. In the absence of a website, provide a link to an active, well-established, public social media presence for your business. An opt-in process and privacy policy must still be present and easily accessible. However, please note that there is a higher risk your registration may be rejected.
Inconsistent or inaccurate registration information Failure codes include: 601 602 603 712	Your business name should be consistent across your registration, website, and contact email domain so that it’s clear they all pertain to the same business. Your example messages and description of how you use messaging should align to the nature of your business. Your example messages should match the description of how you use messaging (for example, if you use messaging to schedule appointments, your example message should demonstrate a typical scheduling message). If your messaging includes attributes such as embedded links, direct lending, age-gated content, etc. - the appropriate boxes should be checked in your registration form, and your message examples should reflect the selected attributes.

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

My registration has been declined – what do I do now?

If your registration is declined, you’ll receive an email notification and will see the status updated in the customer admin portal to “Declined” or “Failed,” with an associated reason code. For most rejection reasons, you can correct and resubmit your registration. View the Troubleshooting section above for guidance on common rejection reasons and how to fix them. Then, contact support for assistance in creating a new registration.

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

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.

I don’t send marketing campaigns or any proactive messages to my customers – I only reply to their messages. Do I still need an opt-in process? How do I answer the ‘how did you get permission to message your contacts’ question?

Yes, you still need a verifiable opt-in process, even if you only reply to customer messages. We recommend putting the opt-in language on your website as part of a “contact us” form.

Then, in your registration form, you can answer the “how did you get permission” question by referencing the opt-in process on your website.

Do I have to manually text opt-in language to my customers when they text me the first time?

No, you don’t need to include opt-in language in your text responses to a customer. You just need to have the opt-in available on your website as part of a contact form so reviewers can verify it.

Do I have to manually add opt-out language to every text message I send?

This depends on the type of message. You should include opt-out language in any proactive texts you send (marketing messages, proactive appointment reminders, etc.). You do not need to include opt-out language in messages sent as part of a conversational exchange that was initiated by your contact.

Do you have a sample privacy policy I can reference?

Grasshopper is not able to provide comprehensive privacy policy language, but our blog post shares general guidance about what information to include. Templates and policy generators are also available online, some free and some for purchase. The following are examples of privacy policy generators. Please note: Grasshopper is not affiliated with these services and does not guarantee success from using them.

If I don’t register, will I still be able to use the Instant Response feature after the December 1st deadline?

Grasshopper’s Instant Response feature relies on outbound texting functionality. If outbound texting is blocked from your phone number(s) due to a lack of SMS registration, the Instant Response feature will not work. If you previously configured Instant Response but do not have an active SMS registration on file before the December deadline, your instant response capability will be disabled as of December 1. Once your registration is approved, Instant Response will be re-enabled automatically with the same message(s) and settings you previously configured.

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

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

I have been texting with an approved SMS campaign, but I received notice that my campaign is now declined. What happened?

Although rare, it is possible that a previously approved campaign could be suspended due to updated requirements from carriers, changes to your messaging content, opt-in process, or privacy policy, or a follow-up carrier review that reveals the original approval was granted in error. If this happens, you’ll see the status change in the Grasshopper customer admin portal and will receive a notification by email with the reason your campaign has been declined. You’ll need to update your SMS campaign registration to address the reason for suspension and resubmit.