Digital Engagement SMS Messaging Reference: Messaging Regulations by Country (United States)

United States

Messaging considerations will differ by geography and carrier, and need to be considered for where you are to utilize business messaging.  Following are some highlights specific to this country.

Carriers have considerable discretion over the SMS traffic that they decide to carry on their networks, and have implemented significant filtering proprietary in nature.  Filtering will vary significantly from one carrier to the next.  

Salesforce suggests you review our carrier filtering section for a more thorough overview and understanding of triggers related to filtering as many of the highlighted scenarios are relevant with U.S. carriers.   

Considerations and Best Practices:  

• Consent – Outbound messaging should only occur with prior opt-in consent from each message recipient (account owner) 
  • The consumer’s express consent to receive messages;
  • The ability for the consumer to revoke consent.
  • Direct messaging to consumer cannot be utilized as tool for gaining consent; consent must be given prior
• Keywords – Messaging for keywords HELP (support) and STOP (opt-out/unsubscribe) at low or no cost, and in recipients’ local language
• Hours – Commercial SMS messages sent during a recipients’ daytime hours unless urgent
• Registries – Should not be contacted if they are on the do-not-call or do-not-disturb registries
• Content – Strictly prohibited / disallowed:

Ordering / Pre-Registration and Other Information

• Sender ID – Numeric only supported
• P2P Messaging - P2P messaging can be sent from an application or service, as long as initiation of the message is triggered due to human interaction
  • Throughput:  15 to 60 messages/telephone number (TN)/minute (This does not translate to product throughput)
  • Message Ratio/ Balance:  Messaging is conversational, and incoming messages typically generate a response from the recipient; expected 1:1 ratio on average with some latitude (not to continue to exceed 3:1). 
  • Volume: Only in unusual cases can individuals send more than a few hundred messages in a day, nor can an individual send messages continuously over a long period of time.  Less than 1K per day, recommend no greater than 15K per month.
  • Unique recipients:  An individual will have a limited number of contacts that they message often; less than 200.
  • Avoid URLs:  If you intend to include a link, relevancy is important as well as frequency.  Particularly problematic are shortened URLs, and have a high potential for getting marked as SPAM.
  • Content should be personalized:  A sure way to get flagged and blocked by filtering algorithms is from identical messaging from the same number.  Identical message does not indicate typical P2P behavior.
• Campaign/A2P – Currently supported on Toll-Free and Short Code
• A2P 10DLC - A2P 10DLC is an emerging messaging classification that would allow A2P messaging for long codes/ text-enabled landlines that today only allow for P2P messaging (in North America). 

• • SMS message filtering will be reduced to allow for broader use cases with long codes (e.g. larger volumes, less restrictive on outbound to inbound message ratios)
  • Filtering will still remain in place to target spam and abusive traffic behavior in order to ensure protection of the consumer, as well as bandwidth availability for commercial traffic

We expect these deliverability improvements to be implemented across multiple carriers throughout 2020.

Salesforce recommends that customers familiarize themselves with the legislation of the target market to ensure compliance with all applicable laws.

The legal regulatory body governing telecommunication systems in this country may fall under Messaging Principles and Best Practices, MMA U.S. Consumer Best Practices for Messaging (MMA Mobile Marketing Association), CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook and Telephone Consumer Protection Act - FCC.  Failure to comply may result in actions taken by the governing body (e.g. warnings, fines and account suspension).

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