United States of America

Business running an SMS messaging program in the United States of America (US) must comply with certain industry guidelines and mobile operator policies. The most important industry guide you must comply with is the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook.

All messaging in the US is inherently two-way, and alpha-numeric message originators are not allowed. However, a wide variety of message originators are supported, including:

  • Dedicated short codes
  • Virtual mobile numbers (long codes)
  • Text-enabled toll-free numbers
  • Text-enabled landlines

Toll-free and landline numbers are supported by most US mobile operators.

You can find out more about the different originators in Choosing the Best Text Messaging Solution.

Help with messaging in North America

We've written the following topics to help you with your messaging programs. We endeavor to keep this information up to date; however, because the legislation around messaging often moves rapidly, we cannot warrant or guarantee any compliance information in these topics. Therefore, before launching a program, ensure that you've checked the most recent industry and mobile operator guidelines.

The key details for mobile messaging in the United States of America are below. We have full one-way reach to all mobile operators in this region. For a datasheet that contains more information, such as best practices and the proportion of subscribers on each mobile operator, please contact us.

See help for an explanation of each field.

Region

North America

Dialing Code

1

1-way

Yes

2-way

Short Code, Long Code (10DLC), TELL (Text Enabled Land Lines), TETFN (Text Enabled Toll Free Numbers)

2-way Setup Time

Primary Character Encoding

GSM

Max Characters for Single-part message

160

Multi-part messages

Yes

Delivery Receipts

Yes*

Mobile Number Portability

Yes

Alphanumeric Originator maintained on 1-way

No

Alphanumeric Originator Registration required

Alphanumeric not supported

Short Code maintained on 1-way

Yes*

Local Long Code maintained on 1-way

Yes*

International Long Code maintained on 1-way

No

* Notes

All messaging and mobile originators are 2-way. All campaigns must be registered with the networks. Delivery receipts supported on short codes and text-enabled toll-free originators, but not on text-enabled landline or long code originators. Please request our data sheet for more information.

Guidance / Restrictions

Operator approval and strict regulation compliance is required. Please contact us