We’ve all heard Paul Marcarelli’s iconic line — “Can you hear me now?” — in a Verizon Wireless commercial at least once. And many of us have seen the carrier’s latest customer-facing innovation: 5G smartphones.

But Verizon has been rolling out a lot more than quippy commercials and faster network speeds, recently. In a push to build greater trust in the texting ecosystem, the global carrier launched an A2P service designed for 10 Digit Long Code messaging (10DLC). This move eliminated SPAM, improved the end-user experience, and widened texting capabilities for brands.

What does this mean for businesses today and in the near future? We’ll take a look at that here.

What is the A2P Ecosystem?

A2P or Application-to-Person messaging is a form of text messaging (both SMS and MMS) that occurs between people and applications via APIs. Usually, it’s used by businesses to communicate with leads and customers.

With the introduction of a fully sanctioned A2P path (White Route) through carriers like Verizon, businesses can take advantage of a higher per message throughput and higher per message deliverability.

For more information on A2P and related topics, please visit Business Messaging, A2P, and The Campaign Registry.

The Latest with Verizon

Carrier Pass-through Fees. Effective February 1, 2020, Verizon began mandating that all A2P 10DLC traffic termination on its network will incur a network access fee of $0.0025 per SMS and $0.0050 per MMS (sent to Verizon mobile network only). Total message costs will be your base message rate plus the network access fee.

Verizon is an official partner of The Campaign Registry and does require registration. However, Verizon hasn’t announced penalties related to A2P traffic traversing the P2P path… yet.

We strongly recommend getting registered as soon as possible if you want to continue enjoying the perks of business texting.

Why Would Verizon Roll Out A2P 10DLC Services?

The texting ecosystem isn’t what it used to be. Scam artists use it to prey on consumers of all ages. Unscrupulous businesses SPAM their leads and customers endlessly. And phone numbers are repeatedly sold and resold without the consumers’ permission.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t just breed bad feelings toward scammers and spammers, though. It also paints mobile network carriers — who are responsible for messaging throughput — in a bad light, and sows doubt in consumers’ minds about the security of their messaging pathways.

As a result, these carriers have looked for ways to reclaim control over the messaging network and keep their customers safe. And since A2P 10DLC offers a way to vet and verify legitimate senders, it enables companies like Verizon to lock would-be fraudsters out of the ecosystem.

Joining Verizon’s A2P 10DLC Ecosystem

We should all rejoice in the fact that Verizon has been leading the charge toward overhauling business texting. Why? Because if you’re A2P complaint today, you can expect to:

• Send messages at a higher throughput*;
• Reach your customers better with higher deliverability; and,
• Avoid snowshoeing, which means higher productivity from your telecom ops team.

Luckily, becoming A2P compliant is easy. Telgorithm’s team of experts can help your product team become compliant quicker than you can say “Blueberry pie” (our ode to Pulp Fiction).

* For context, P2P SMS throughputs are 60 Transactions per Minute, or TPM; A2P SMS throughputs are 6,000 TPM.

Who’s Affected?

Whether you send out appointment reminders, two-factor authentication requests, or answers to customer questions, you need to move your messaging over to Verizon’s A2P ecosystem if you’re going to stay compliant.

Here’s why. Verizon, and other carriers, have already started flagging SMS / MMS as SPAM. And we can expect the number of blocked messages to increase in the future. Eventually, P2P messages may be the only texts allowed to travel down the P2P pathway.

As a result, the sooner businesses switch to Verizon’s A2P 10DLC ecosystem, the less risky texting customers will be.

Questions about A2P 10DLC Compliance? Chat with us.