Does Zoom Phone SMS 10DLC Requirement apply to everyone?

[Ray_Harwood]

I got the reminder email from Zoom about "Upcoming Changes to SMS" that seems to imply that my SMS messages won't be delivered by mobile carriers after Feb 1, 2023 -- unless I "register my brand" and "assign my Zoom Phone number to campaigns". 

The Support article referenced says "10DLC campaign registration is required by U.S and Canada mobile carriers to enable business to consumer (A2P) messaging".

If I'm just one guy with a couple of phone numbers (a main line and a personal line), will my SMS messages to my clients stop working 2/1/23 if I don't "register my brand" and "assign my Zoom Phone number to campaigns"?

[BrandonS]

I think that is a possible outcome, yes.  It is very simple to register the campaigns though.  I am viewing it as a formality as the various players in the industry figure out how to best comply with new law/rules/regulations around stopping spam/scam SMS and voice.  Ultimately, this should be a good thing overall for consumers, but as I understand at this time the wireless carriers are being scrutinized and threatened with large fines for not controlling spam SMS and this trickles down to Zoom and other similar companies as Zoom could be held liable and be fined if their users abused/broke new rules around SMS.

For what it's worth, Zoom has made this extremely easy and free.  The same can't be said for other providers.

[VickK]

I disagree it is simple to register campaigns. The questions make no sense for this one-to-one messaging use case. What exactly are you supposed to fill out? Does anyone have an example of one that was successful?

[FORE-Craig]

Hi @VickK 

Zoom Support published this article Setting up Zoom SMS with 10DLC Compliance for conversational messaging

It gives you examples of how you would complete the setup questions. I filled ours in similarly even prior to this being published, and it was accepted.

I hope that helps!

[Ray_Harwood]

Thanks, @BrandonS.  I'm less concerned really for my own account (I'll go through the process, just so I can say "I've done it and it's easy")... I'm more concerned that some people will read that first line in the support article, think "that doesn't apply to me," and then we'll get a tsunami of posts here.  We'll see what happens!

[BrandonS]

You are probably right about that. I would hope Zoom has some way to track how many customers send SMS compared to how many have completed the campaign registration.

Maybe the next email will be more like, "Urgent: Action Required to Continue Sending SMS/MMS/Text messages" 

[LissaCaltrider]

My problem is that I am an independent contractor and don't have a business name or DBA, but I do use it for work.  Should I just use my name? And choose private profit for Legal Form?

[Ray_Harwood]

Welcome to the Zoom Community, @LissaCaltrider.

I'll be honest -- I don't know the answer, mostly because I've not done the registration yet (that I can remember!).  I'm guessing at this point "anything goes, as long as you complete the process."  When I get a break and have a few minutes to wade through it, I'll come back here and post any guidance I can gleam from the process.

Maybe @BrandonS has some insight. 😎

[VickK]

Were you able to successfully register a "non campaign" campaign? I cannot figure out the magic incantation they want and have gotten rejected. If so, what did you fill in the forms?

[FORE-Craig]

Hi @VickK 

This is how I filled ours out (see attachment), and it was successfully accepted. We are a small Residential Real Estate firm. 

I hope that helps!

[VickK]

Thanks! That's helpful. Submitting my updated one now.

[FORE-Craig]

Great! You're welcome! 🤞

[eli-hu]

That's not actually helpful because it seems that you DO use your phone for business. Those of us who are just individuals wanting to use the Zoom phone for SMS are out of luck.

[RatherBFishing]

I checked with my phone manufacturer (Apple) and my phone supports two lines/numbers. I am porting my Zoom phone number to AT&T and having it added to my phone as a second line. I dont need to register anything. I still can make/send calls and texts. And I can use the free version of Zoom for occasional online meetings.

[KKG-Shawn]

My problem is the campaigns seemed to be geared towards marketing or pitching sales, garbage, etc. Our phone system is just a normal business use so our users may just sms someone to see if they got something in the mail or something random. Adding a "STOP" to stop getting messages just doesn't seem feasible for these or professional.

[Ray_Harwood]

OK, so I filled in all the forms required. What an idiotic process -- not blaming Zoom, but the need for everyone not on a major carrier to have to "pretend" they're spamming people just to keep their SMS alive is "most unfortunate," if this is indeed the case.

I haven't delved into the 10DLC rules and regs themselves, but it seems to me like someone is really missing the context that most of us poor lowly phone users operate in... if it's really their intent that ANYONE that sends EVEN ONE SMS message has to go through this.

A couple of notes, if you haven't gone through the process (from a USA subscriber point of view; other countries are probably different):

• It requires a TIN - your company's equivalent of an SSN, used for tax purposes.
• Don't put a dash in the TIN when entering it - just enter 9 digits.  If you put in a dash, there's not enough room.
• Once you go through the whole process of filling out the 10DLC form and creating an "SMS Campaign", don't rush down to add the campaign to your phones... it has to be "approved" first.  Supposedly we'll get a note from Zoom (or somewhere -- the document doesn't mention this), and then you can go assign a campaign to your phone numbers.
• I "made up" an SMS Campaign called "Everyday SMS Traffic", and entered somewhat-reasonable examples of text messages, opt out messages, etc.
• There's a place where you enter a "sample message" and there's a note that your Campaign will not be "accepted" if the phrase "Reply STOP to cancel" isn't at the end.  Here's what I put:
  

There you have it.  On February 1, 2023 I'm expecting one of two things:

• Nothing will happen.  The whole threat of "we'll turn off your SMS if you don't do this" was highly overrated, and only designed to stop the really bad people who are sending all the rest of us political, spam, scam, and other obnoxious jibberish.
• There will be mass chaos for the thousands of owners of Zoom Phone accounts who didn't comply with the requirement and thought -- quite logically -- "this shouldn't apply to me".  But they won't be able to text anyone about it.

In the meantime, Pete and I can text all we want.

[mikehenrysr]

One thought on your note above, as I created my first general "campaign" today. You can't even put punctuation on the end of "Reply STOP to cancel". It will give you an error.

[Ray_Harwood]

OK, so today I got an Email that says:

Yippee!  I'm okay, you're okay!!

When I clicked on the blue login link, I happened to be logged out of my Zoom Web Portal at the time, and as the screen opened up after supplying username/password, this came up:

... with error messages scrolling off the bottom of the screen, and ultimately the navigation menu on the right read:

But page that was showing was Phone Settings:

Clearly, the documentation says go to Admin -> Phone System Management -> Phone Numbers -> Assigned tab:

After looking up the documentation for the right place and manually navigating to the page where the Campaign assignments need to be done, I did check my three numbers -- curiously, the main company number does not show up -- and went through the process of assigning my only Campaign to the three numbers, followed by a message that says I'll be notified when these are ready (activated? approved? I didn't notice the terminology).

So now I wait... which is no big deal here the first week of January.  But what about the poor company that figures out on February 1 that they can't send SMS messages.  It will take two days minimum for them to get the functionality back... assuming that the approval processes I've gone through are automated and don't require staff to check anything... because if there's humans in the loop, I'm guessing they'll be overloaded once February 1 rolls around.

Anyone out there listening?  😳

[mikehenrysr]

I'm in the waiting period, too. This is such a total waste and overkill. All I want to do is get SMS messages on my business phone number.

[bnjn86]

My non-profit organization uses our direct zoom numbers to call and text our vendors, volunteers, colleagues, etc.  We have more than 11 lines that use SMS. Our staff basically use their lines like it is mobile phone.  Our sms volume isnt high, but its lower than the minimum required to before the carriers can fine us (https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/11599874969101-10DLC-Non-Usage-changes).  So either we make a campaign and get fined for not meeting a threshold, or lose the ability to communicate via sms?  Do I understand this right?

[RatherBFishing]

Yesterday I added a SIM card to my iphone (most recent phones are dual sim capable). I went to Spectrum and added a line for $29 and am in the process or porting over my Zoom Phone number. Now I will miss the benefits of seeing my calls and messages on other devices (ipad, destop) but not having to deal with this issue makes it worth it. I will cancel my Zoom One Pro subscription and that will pay mean its an even $ trade (nearly). I can continue to use Zoom Personal for the occassional zoom meeting that I need. I like Zoom and was happy with the service, product and support. But this is a deal killer for me

[Ray_Harwood]

Okay everyone... I think I've finally figured out that "this is not a requirement for everyone".  It should ONLY apply if you do send SMS campaigns -- basically bulk dumps of messages on unsuspecting recipients OR regular messages to known people (you know, like UPS or Amazon or any other company sends to you to alert you of something about your order or delivery).

I found the "official site" for 10DLC over the weekend: https://www.campaignregistry.com/

READ IT.

Apparently 10DLC applies only to A2P (Application-to-person) with high volume messaging and NOT to P2P (Person-to-Person) which is typically low volume.

Also, take a look at this Zoom Support document which talks about fines levied (to the Zoom customer from the "10DLC police") for registered campaigns that don't actually have significant traffic.  Bottom line: I'm going to take down my campaign listings, since a "big SMS day" for me is 10 messages.

Don't be fooled by all the other sites that come up with you search for 10DLC.  In my opinion, these people are just trying to take your money (and scare you) with "good SEO marketing strategies".

[mikehenrysr]

A big SMS day for me is also about 10 messages. But when I go into the system, on the phone number, I can only Assign SMS or Disable SMS. I clearly don't want to disable it. I think I'll just leave it alone and let Zoom disable it for inactivity.

[bnjn86]

I was kind of getting the sense that A2P need to register campaigns and P2P clients do not, however zoom  is cloud based and considered A2P.  This means all of us need to do it AND meet thresholds to avoid fines.  I seriously don't have time to deal with this stuff.  We are a small, very busy nonprofit.  All of our staff have 3 jobs in 1 and this random interruption has already consumed too much valuable time.  Filing complaints with state attorney general offices would be a better use of my time.  Mobile carriers should not be able to create all this mess on critical communication infrastructure. 

[VickK]

Zoom support told me we had to fill this out even though our volume is like 2-3 messages a week and we do no automated messaging.

[AssafEO]

Clarifying: the low-volume fines have been discontinued. There is a fine for registering a campaign and not assigning phone numbers to them.  But if you own / work for a small company, assign a phone number to your campaign and send 10 messages a month there is no fine.

[BrandonS]

Just for reference/context/whatever, I received this email from RingCentral about 10DLC.  I found it interesting how they are clearly pointing their finger at mobile carriers and "constantly changing requirements":

Dear valued RingCentral customer, In 2021, mobile carriers imposed new restrictions on business SMS traffic sent from text-enabled phone numbers, known as “10DLC,” in line with industry requirements set out in the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices. The mobile carriers have extended these restrictions to all business SMS, including conversational texting. All customers using SMS must now self-register with The Campaign Registry (TCR) or their SMS traffic will be blocked by the mobile carriers. To simplify this process, RingCentral will be adding the ability to self-register inside of the admin portal. We expect this feature to be available February 10, 2023 at which time we highly recommend you register. Please note carriers and TCR impose registration and other fees. Read more about these fees here. After March 31, 2023, SMS will be automatically disabled for all existing numbers that have not been registered. If you have already registered via the manual PDF form process, your registration will automatically be added to the admin portal for you to manage moving forward. You can learn more about these changes here. RingCentral is making every effort to support our customers using SMS, as we react to constantly changing requirements from the mobile carriers over which we have no control. If you have any questions, please reach out to your representative and we are happy to help. We appreciate your understanding of this required registration process by the carriers. Sincerely, RingCentral SMS Team

[Ray_Harwood]

Totally unsure if this is related to the 10DLC issue, but thought I'd post this here just in case.

This morning I can't send any SMS messages from my personal desk number - using the Zoom Windows client, the iPad, or the iPhone.  All these devices can receive SMS, but not send. See this post for more information.