Yes, I am educating you on how 10DLC works because it can impact what you want to do and it seems you are unaware as to how it can impact you. One of those things is providers not allowing messaging until it is done. Since messaging seems to be a huge deal for you, understanding how 10DLC impacts that is very important.
As for your original question, it’s been answered in various ways. Different carriers use different methods in which to handling messaging. Some might not even offer an API but offer a portal in which you manage it. Some might offer APIs but not off webhook methods meaning you would have to make an API call to receive messages instead of just listening for them. Some require very basic things like from/to/message. Others require additional information to be sent. Then you have actual business needs. Some just want email based, some want a portal, some want both. There’s also the issue of storage as most carriers will only hold the message on their end for so long (while some don’t hold it at all).
There is also the case that many of these vendors have changed how they’ve done messaging over the years. Meaning that someone that wrote a connector for X vendor 5 years ago might not be applicable today because of changes made.
People have been asking for years for something like this and the answer has always been the same. There are too many vendors that require different ways to do the same thing. The development behind it along with the continual support of it would require working with N amount of vendors. Following all the changes the vendors make, making sure it is compliant with things. Using Flowroute as the example here, they have services all over the world. Messaging is different all over the world such as other places don’t have 10DLC like the US. So working on a Flowroute SMS module, is it only for the US? How will it comply to other messaging rules/laws in other places?
In other words, not only do the various vendors have different methods various countries have different rules that have to be followed. Developing a Flowroute module would require that it work with Flowroute regardless of where the user is located in the world. As I said before, you find a PBX vendor that is doing something like this it will be a commercial solution much like phone provisioning.
Well 3CX is comparable but with Google Voice you need to be a little more specific. Are you referring to the “I can associate a free GV number to a mobile number” or actual Google Voice business? GV is a bit murky to deal as they could have P2P exemptions due to the nature of them pairing a number with a mobile number. Based on some rumbling from the ITExpo this year, I wouldn’t be basing business needs around the free Google Voice service.
As for 3CX, it gives you some ability to configure with the provider and process messages in the PBX but then again 3CX entire business model doesn’t have OSS in it. In fact, they actively market against OSS. The free licenses are pretty much a joke for a business of any size and 3CX famously takes a commission from all of their partner providers on MRCs, etc. This is why Telnyx and Twilio are no longer partner providers but 3rd party providers that have support. Because they were partners but then decided that 30% per month commission to 3CX was a bit too much. All in all 3CX is a commercial product.
So you have 3CX that sucks money from the users and their partners. Then there is Google Voice, free but as-is including the fact it could go away tomorrow and there would be no legal recourse for any users.
As far as 3CX, yeah, they are commercial and have little OSS baked in, so you’d think they’d be MORE susceptible to the legal side of things, but you can attach a long list of SIP providers (including Flowroute) and use SMS just as I’m looking to do. So what’s the difference there and why can’t/won’t/hasn’t anybody created simple SMS plugins/adapters/connectors for SIP Providers and FPBX?
The legal side of what they do with it is on the end user. If someone breaks the law with it, that’s on them. I’m not buying your argument about 10DLC and I have no clue how we even got on this path because like I said, I wasn’t asking about the legal side of things, I was simply asking about getting a PBX (mainly FPBX) to allow employees to converse with their customers using SMS which is a MAIN method communication since the early 2000’s. It’s a necessity in 2023. Like I said, non-negotiable.
Yeah, I get it. This is a ‘I have question X and just answer it for me.’ situation. The answer has been given, if you’re going to use FreePBX you will need to write your own solution or have someone develop a solution for you. You can go the commercial route and get 3CX or some other PBX that has built in Flowroute messaging support. Those are pretty much your options at this point.
As for the rest, do with it what you will. It just seems like messaging was a vital service for your customer and I was just making sure that you and the customer are aware of what is going on. As not knowing can end up having a negative impact.
10DLC is a requirement for texting from any VoIP line to any cellular number now days. It has gotten worse now where every campaign requires a manual vetting by the gateway provider that connects all VOIP carriers to the mobile network called Syniverse. You can not send a message to a mobile number from VOIP without it going through them. They are now taking up to 15 days to Vet a single campaign and starting March 31st they will not allow messages through their gateway without a campaign associated with the number.
Even Flowroute will tell you this and that you can’t send or receive messages until you register a brand and a campaign and than have Syniverse vet and approve the campaign which requires strict opt in requirements from customers before you can even send a reply to them.
To qualify for P2P it has to be consumer to consumer with no APIs used. Only mobile to mobile qualifies for that and consumer grade services like Google Voice. Your business would never qualify for a P2P exemption. You would have to register a campaign with the use case of UCaaS.
The problem your going to have is to deal with all the required automation for opt in and opt out and not allowing to send a text or reply to a text without a explicit opt in first. This is becoming a nightmare for companies trying to do conversational texting.
Where do you want your SMS to be handled? Do you want to work on it on a web interface like UCP or handle it on your endpoints? Which would lead to the question, what phones do you have deployed?
So what happens if a prospective customer got your number from a friend who used you 10 years ago and assumed that SMS now works with more than mobiles so tries to contact you that way (I’m assuming your can port landline numbers to VoIP in the USA)?
Also, maybe I’m out of touch with modern business jargon, but, to me, campaign implies an exercise that involves large scale communication that is to some extent unsolicited, but not necessarily electronic. The closest to solicited would be a yellow page entry. I’m not sure how that applies to an ongoing professional relationship, e.g. between a general medical practitioner and their patient, or between a school and a parent.
If the OP is right, and people are beginning to expect SMS to work with any business number, there may well end up with pressure to backtrack on this.
PS, as I read it, what offering does not use VoIP protocols, and if forced to use the 10DLC address subspace, will not correspond to what I would think people would understand by a VoIP line.
Common sense does not apply here. The mobile industry has casted out all non mobile carriers. Their rules are very stringent and they consider anything non consumer to consumer to be 10DLC. No exceptions. The word campaigns is stupid since in the UCaaS space you do 1 to 1 conversations but those are still considered 10DLC and require a campaign.
To be exempt from Campaigns to send SMS you have to be qualified as P2P. Here is the form you have to submit to The Campaign Registry for that approval by each of the wireless carriers. We had 1 customer who only sells residential service submit this and TMobile denied the exemption but ATT accepted it. So their is not even uniformity within each carrier but if you can’t get past the first 3 questions alone you can not qualify.
Figure what out. They are adding more layers of BS every 6 months. It’s not getting easier. The wireless guys have all the say as it’s their network and they can just choose to block us from it 100% if they choose to.
Do you just love to argue or what’s the deal? A bit exhausting. Figure it out as in figure it out. Hopefully peel back the layers of BS and be more realistic.
I was asking a question. Figure what out? If you mean make it easier or relax things they are going the opposite direction. If you mean figure out how to setup everything. than it’s already been figured out and all the providers have processes in place to register your brand and campaign and have it vetted.
I will share what our company has worked with in regards to using our Flowroute numbers for SMS. We found a website software package that we purchased and installed on a webhost. The package author kindly added the necessary code so that Flowroute is now a gateway that can be added.
The website allows our company to log into the website and see the conversations and respond. Also we can initiate individual or blast message campaigns. The software allows setup of of automatic responders for STOP, HELP, etc.
The website can also be setup for different users to have access to only their numbers. You can also use the website software to resell SMS services.
Our company has purchased and used, I am not representing or selling for this software. Ultimate SMS
It is sold via
This is NOT the Wordpress plugin by the same name.
This is entirely separate from your VOIP PBX. It only uses the same SIP Trunk providers API’s for SMS via a web interface on YOUR webhost.
I am offering a possible solution to the OP’s question. Not trying to solve or inform regarding the 10DLC regulations.
