10DLC Registration: What Canadian Businesses Need to Know Before Texting US Customers
The Problem Most Canadian Businesses Don’t See Coming
Section titled “The Problem Most Canadian Businesses Don’t See Coming”You set up a business phone number, connect it to your CRM or customer platform, and start sending appointment reminders, order confirmations, or promotional messages to your US customer base. Everything looks fine on your end — messages are sending without errors. But on the other end, customers aren’t receiving them.
This is not a hypothetical. It is the reality for thousands of Canadian businesses that have started using application-to-person (A2P) SMS without registering under the US 10DLC framework. US carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and others — began enforcing 10DLC requirements in 2021 and have steadily tightened filtering since. Unregistered traffic is throttled, blocked, or silently dropped. You rarely get a bounce or error. The messages just disappear.
If your business sends any kind of SMS to US numbers from a standard 10-digit long code, this affects you.
What Is 10DLC?
Section titled “What Is 10DLC?”10DLC stands for 10-Digit Long Code. It refers to the standard local-format phone numbers most businesses use for SMS — the ones that look like a regular North American phone number rather than a short code (like 55555) or a toll-free number.
For years, these numbers existed in a grey zone for business messaging. Carriers tolerated A2P traffic on long codes because volume was low and filtering was minimal. As SMS became a primary business communication channel, spam and fraud increased significantly. Carriers responded by requiring all A2P traffic on 10-digit numbers to be registered through a centralized system called The Campaign Registry (TCR).
10DLC registration is now effectively mandatory for any business sending A2P SMS to US subscribers. It is not optional, and being a Canadian company does not exempt you from the requirement — the rules apply based on where the message is being delivered, not where the sender is located.
Brand Registration and Campaign Registration: The Two Pieces
Section titled “Brand Registration and Campaign Registration: The Two Pieces”10DLC compliance involves two distinct registrations, and both are required before your messages will flow reliably.
Brand registration identifies your company. You submit your legal business name, address, tax identification number, and other organizational details to TCR. This creates a verified entity that carriers can associate with your messaging traffic. For Canadian businesses, this means providing your CRA business number in place of a US EIN.
Campaign registration identifies the specific use case for each messaging program. A campaign defines what type of messages you are sending, what the content looks like, and how recipients opted in. Common campaign types include account notifications, customer care, marketing, two-factor authentication, and appointment reminders. Each number you use for A2P messaging must be linked to a registered campaign.
Both registrations carry fees — brand registration is a one-time cost, while campaign registration has a monthly maintenance fee. These are industry fees passed through from TCR and the carriers, not markups added by your messaging provider.
Why This Matters More for Canadian Businesses
Section titled “Why This Matters More for Canadian Businesses”Canadian businesses often discover 10DLC requirements late — or only after messages start failing. There are a few reasons for this.
First, Canadian domestic SMS operates under a different regulatory framework. CASL governs consent and content rules for messages sent to Canadian numbers, but it does not impose a technical registration requirement like 10DLC. A business that has been running compliant SMS campaigns within Canada can unknowingly step into a completely different compliance environment the moment they start sending to US numbers.
Second, many smaller Canadian businesses use the same local number for both domestic and cross-border messaging. A single number sending to both Canadian and US subscribers still needs 10DLC registration to reach the US recipients reliably.
Third, the failure mode is invisible. There are no hard bounces. Customers do not usually report that they did not receive a text — they simply do not respond, do not show up, or do not complete a purchase. Businesses often attribute this to low engagement rather than a deliverability problem.
How TextFlow Handles 10DLC Registration
Section titled “How TextFlow Handles 10DLC Registration”TextFlow is TELAIR’s business messaging platform, built for Canadian businesses that need reliable, compliant SMS across North America. The platform includes a self-service 10DLC registration workflow that walks you through both brand and campaign registration without requiring you to interact with TCR directly or navigate carrier portals.
From your TextFlow dashboard, you submit your brand information, select your campaign type, provide sample message content, and describe your opt-in method. TextFlow handles the submission to TCR, monitors approval status, and notifies you when your number is cleared for A2P delivery.
Once registered, your messages are treated as legitimate business traffic by US carriers. Delivery rates improve materially, and your number is less likely to be flagged by spam filters or carrier screening systems.
TextFlow also supports toll-free numbers and short codes for businesses that need higher throughput or a dedicated short code presence — both of which have their own registration requirements that the platform supports.
Getting Started
Section titled “Getting Started”If you are a Canadian business that sends — or plans to send — SMS to US customers, 10DLC registration is not something to defer. The longer unregistered traffic runs, the greater the risk of your number being flagged or blocked outright by carriers.
TextFlow makes registration straightforward, and the platform handles the ongoing compliance requirements so you can focus on the messages themselves rather than the infrastructure behind them.