Legal

Votacall ONE Messaging Terms

Updated: February 1, 2022; Effective March 1, 2022

A2P 10DLC refers to a system in the United States that allows businesses to send Application-to-Person (“A2P”) type messaging via standard 10-digit long code (“10DLC”) phone numbers for things like alerts, appointment reminders, notifications, and marketing messages. Each of the major mobile carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint) in the U.S., and over time other carriers, are working with The Campaign Registry (TCR) as a third-party for registering text messaging campaigns. To enforce the registration requirements, carriers are imposing penalties for unregistered A2P traffic.

In addition to potentially blocking messages from non-registered senders, some carriers have also announced that they will impose higher per-message fees for unregistered long code messaging sent to users on their networks.

To help subscribers avoid these restrictions and penalties, Votacall now requires its subscribers to register both transactional and promotional use cases with TCR, irrespective of volume. This requirement applies to all businesses that plan to continue sending SMS via long codes through US carrier networks.

All your long code message-enabled numbers with Votacall will be treated as 10DLC numbers subject to the requirement to register with TCR. The impact of 10DLC falls into two categories: Carrier Fees and Registration Requirements. Carrier fees are fees charged by wireless carriers for messages terminated to and/or originated from their numbers and are passed through to customers.

• Carrier fees are fees charged by wireless carriers for messages terminated to and/or originated from their numbers and are passed through to customers.
• Customers will be required to register their brand/business in order to continue sending messages.
• After you register your brand, you’ll need to create one or more campaigns based on use cases for your A2P messaging. This will require selecting a use case, providing a description, and including    sample messages for each campaign. The terms “campaign” and “use case” are often used interchangeably.
• Finally, you’ll need to specify which numbers are associated with each campaign.

Registration Requirement and Process

Votacall is requiring its subscribers using the Company’s SMS to register their brands and use cases by March 1, 2022.

The 10DLC ecosystem relies on two important declarations from the customer. A brand is the entity that a number represents. A campaign represents the type of messages the brand intends to send.

Starting February 8, 2022, Votacall subscribers can initiate brand registration through our Campaign Registry Customer Portal. Subscribers will be solely responsible for paying the applicable one-time registration fee, which is subject to change. As part of the registration process, companies must indicate use cases, as these determine campaign approval and throughput. Details needed at the time of registration include:

• Your company’s legal name
• Your company’s country of registration
• Your company’s address
• The type of your organization (private, publicly traded, nonprofit)
• Business type (LLC, partnership, corporation)
• Your company’s tax number/ID/EIN
• Your business’s website
• Region of operation
• Point of contact
• Campaign name
• Campaign description
• Campaign use case
• Campaign sample messages

A brand and campaign can take up to 4 weeks to be approved by the various cell phone service providers. Once your brand has been approved by the carriers, you’ll receive an email confirmation from Votacall that details your allocated throughput.

If you want to register with the The Campaign Registry (TCR) directly, please share your campaigns with Votacall so they can be imported to your account.

Throughput and rate limits will vary and will be determined following the registration process. Once a business is registered, its carriers allocate throughput instantly with campaign ID and brand ID. Throughput is not fixed for every campaign. Carriers determine throughput for a campaign by doing a thorough assessment of your business and use case. Every business registered through Votacall is vetted by default with the carriers at no additional cost after the one-time fee referenced above.

Expected Fees

SMS providers pay a one-time setup fee and ongoing monthly recurring messaging fee for every campaign registered in addition to carrier surcharge fees:  

• One-time brand registration fee
• Recurring campaign charge
• Carrier surcharge fee

The fees can vary, Votacall passes these underlying fees to you without any additional charges. Subscribers are solely responsible for these fees and any additional fees stemming from a subscriber’s failure to comply with the registration requirements herein. Non-payment of these fee pass throughs by subscribers to Votacall can result in termination of your services in accordance with the termination provisions of your agreement with Votacall.

Messaging Use Cases

In addition to Votacall’s AUP and your Terms of Services/MSA, your use of Votacall’s messaging services is also subject to the following terms and restrictions.

General Rules of Content

Please note, it is the Customers responsibility to obtain and maintain an "opt-in" database to avoid potential penalties and fines. 

Subscribers and users should take affirmative steps and employ tools which monitor and prevent unwanted message content, including content which:

• is unlawful, harmful, abusive, malicious, misleading, harassing, violent, obscene/illicit or defamatory;
• is deceptive (e.g., phishing messages intended to access private or confidential information), including deceptive links;
• invades privacy;
• causes safety concerns;
• incites harm, discrimination, hate or violence;
• intended to intimidate;
• includes malware;
• threatens consumers;
• does not meet age-gating requirements.

Political messaging will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Such discretion will not be exercised with the intent of favor or disfavor of any political party or candidate. Due to high volumes of consumer complaints, messages containing the following content are not appropriate and may be blocked by carriers if sent over either P2P or A2P (toll-free/10DLC) messaging, regardless of opt-in status:

• spoofing messages or snowshoed content across multiple numbers;
• data sharing between message senders;
• Malicious content;
• phishing content.

Due to high volumes of consumer complaints, messages containing the following content are not appropriate and may be blocked by carriers if sent over either P2P or A2P (toll-free/10DLC) messaging, regardless of opt-in status.

If messaging traffic is identified by a provider as associated with one of the following use cases, Votacall will be unable to assist in the removal of blocking:

• social marketing
• insurance:
• gambling, Casino, and Bingo;
• gift cards;
• sweepstakes;
• free prizes;
• investment opportunities;
• lead generation;
• recruiting;
• commission programs;
• credit repair;
• tax relief;
• illicit or illegal substances (including Cannabis);
• work from home;
• get rich quick;
• phishing;
• fraud or scams;
• cannabis;
• deceptive marketing;
• SHAFT: Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms or Tobacco.
• collections;
• financial services, whether account notifications, marketing, collections or billing for:

- high-risk/subprime lending/credit card companies
- auto loans
- mortgages
- payday loans
- short-term loans
- student loans
- debt consolidation/reduction/forgiveness

Additional Prohibited Practices

Snowshoe sending is a technique used to send messages from more source phone numbers or short codes than are needed to support an application’s function. This technique is often used to dilute reputation metrics and evade filters. Subscribers and users should not engage in snowshoe messaging.

Certain cases with similar campaigns may use different numbers. In that case, it is important for message senders to identify their messages with a distinct brand and URL naming convention.

Message senders might utilize a phone number as a proxy number, which functions as a relay point between possibly large sets of phone numbers and/or frequently changing phone numbers in certain wireless messaging use cases. For example, a driver for a ride-sharing service may need to communicate with a prospective passenger to confirm a pick-up location. The proxy phone number functions as a conference call bridge phone number, allowing the driver and passenger to communicate without either party having to reveal their personal phone number. A 10-digit NANP phone number used as a proxy is typically a means to connect two individuals, but proxy numbers are commonly reused in a way which may create volumes of messaging traffic exceeding typical consumer operation. Given the use of proxy numbers to facilitate bulk messaging traffic among multiple 10-digit NANP phone numbers, the proxy number qualifies as non-consumer (A2P) messaging traffic and may be subject to additional validation, vetting and monitoring.

Message number spoofing includes the ability of a message sender to cause a message to display an originating number for the message, which is not assigned to the message sender, or when a message sender originates a message through a service provider other than the service provider to which reply messages will be delivered or received. Message number spoofing should be avoided and should comply with all applicable laws.

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