Important: Changes to outbound texting
Below is the text of an important email we just sent to all customers regarding outbound text messaging:
We have an important announcement to share with you regarding NumberBarn and the future of outbound text messaging.
Over the past couple of years, US wireless carriers have been working to combat spam and improve the delivery of legitimate text messages. In order to send text messages using local phone numbers, businesses must first register with a 3rd-party reputation authority called The Campaign Registry. Registration includes an approved 10DLC (10-digit long code) brand and campaign in order to send text messages to customers.
Here at NumberBarn we have worked hard over the past couple of years to preserve our SMS service as you have come to expect it. As of December 1, 2024, however, wireless carriers will begin blocking outgoing SMS/MMS messages for unregistered customers.
This means that all businesses that send text messages to ten-digit US phone numbers must register with The Campaign Registry and pay the fees associated with registration.
Furthermore, these regulations affect everyone sending text messages (including person-to-person conversational messages) using any service other than a wireless telephone number associated with a mobile device. Note that this change only applies to outbound texting. You will continue to receive inbound text messages as expected.
Who is Implementing This Change?
These new requirements are not the result of a decision by NumberBarn. The major US mobile carriers, including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, have introduced registration and fee requirements to reduce unwanted or fraudulent text messages and cover the costs associated with the increase in commercial text messaging across their networks.
What are the next steps?
While these changes impact businesses and individuals alike, the actions you may take moving forward differ. Here’s the current way forward:
If you are a business - We understand that SMS is an essential part of your customer communication and marketing strategy. To ensure that your messaging is not interrupted, you can move your messaging to our sister company, String and we’ll help you register your brand and campaign with The Campaign Registry. Please note that only businesses that have an EIN (Employer Identification Number) will be able to register.
To take advantage of a 30-day free trial of String, in your NumberBarn account go to “Numbers” then click “Messages” and “Activate with String” to integrate String’s intuitive SMS features with your phone numbers. Use promo code 10DLC to register.
As of December 1, NumberBarn will no longer support outbound business and marketing text messages.
If you’re a sole proprietor or individual - You will continue to receive inbound text messages without an issue. We understand that an interruption to outbound texting is less than optimal and are working with our carriers on a new solution for outbound person-to-person texting.
Finally, we want to make it clear that these changes are industry-wide. 10DLC brand and campaign registration requirements and fees are the same regardless of the service provider you choose. Non-compliant providers risk the loss of SMS functionality for all of their customers. More info about 10DLC changes
Thank you for your attention to this matter. We appreciate your continued business with NumberBarn and will notify you with updates as we have them.
FAQ
How does this impact Canadian numbers? If you are sending from a Canadian number to other Canadian numbers, you should not be impacted. If you are sending text messages from a Canadian number to a US wireless number your text messages may be impacted.
How does this impact texting on toll free numbers? NumberBarn has never offered text messaging on toll free numbers but NumberGarage does. A similar campaign is required in order to send text messages through NumberGarage and this will still be supported for the foreseeable future.
Can I still use NumberBarn for voice service? If you switch to String through your account control panel, this will set up what's called "Hosted Messaging" and NumberBarn would still be responsible for the voice service on your telephone number. If you would prefer to port your number to String, we can help, however you'll find that the voice functionality on String is much simpler than on NumberBarn.
If I ported away, will my numbers be impacted? If you ported to a US wireless carrier, you shouldn't have any issues. If you ported to another VoIP/landline service provider, we recommend checking in with them to see if they require 10DLC registration but it's highly likely that they do.
Is NumberBarn offering 10DLC registration? Not currently. We are only offering 10DLC registration through the String service. We will update if this changes in the future.
I don't see an option to activate SMS with String. If you are signed into your account. Go to "Numbers", click on your number, and click "Messages." If you have active SMS you will first need to click "Deactivate SMS" and then you can activate your SMS with String.
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DavidJade, Google Voice is strictly for non-business use, no mass texting allowed. So it's considered "person-to-person" communications, outside of all this "application-to-person" 10DLC registration stuff/filtering. It would be nice if NumberBarn had such an option, although maybe that is what they are working towards now.
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As a temporary measure only, I have been using the web interface to Google Messages to respond to inbound NumberBarn SMS messages. I do that by sending 'Group' texts that include (i) an actual cell phone number and (ii) my NumberBarn phone number.
At least that way, I'm hoping the recipient will recognize my NumberBarn 'business' number and when they respond to the 'Group' text, I'll receive the response in NumberBarn.
Yes, this is a half-assed way to do things, but I'm hopeful NumberBarn will soon resolve this issue, even if I have to pay an additional monthly charge to have them certify my messages as P2P.
Going to the trouble of getting an EIN and a website just to respond to texts doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. If that turns out being the only way, I suppose I'll just port my business number to a cell phone and just use Google Messages, but I'd rather not have to do that.
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Marc Martin it sure seems like NB could figure this out if all these other guys have. In our case, we ported a personal phone line to NB to retain our phone number of 30+ years. It's always been a personal phone line - never associated with business. That we get subjected to business SMS rules that limit the capabilities of what we signed up for with NB, is the pain point. Surely someone can tell the difference between a business account and a personal account or phone line?
My gripe remains the same - we often receive SMS messages that we are required to respond to, like appointment confirmation, etc... and we are prevented from doing that now after porting our personal number to NB. I should not have to change to a business account phone provider to respond to SMS messages that have been sent to me.
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I'm not sure if there's something else going on but using my NB number to send a text to anyone it seems like when I hit send it says error try again later. I don't know if that's just blocking real cellular service companies or there's a problem in general but I'd sure like to know what's going on on that part. I'm a pretty patient dude but I'm a little confused like it seems like others why some texting app numbers are going through to Cellular services but number Barn won't. Can someone please from number born pipe in on this this conversation and let us know what your thoughts are and what might be happening. I can't seem to send a text to anyone right now.
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Hi All, apologies for my lack of response here. Just to confirm, any platform that does landline texting and doesn't require a campaign likely has a P2P (Person-to-Person) classification. I'm certain that's the case with Google Voice. For you, DavidJade registering a campaign would be complete overkill just so you can respond to appointment reminder text messages.
We are working on P2P and will have it eventually but we're finding it to be a slow implementation. I hope to have some good news for y'all soon.
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I'm just curious how you can keep charging the same amount while cutting the SMS functionality in half ?
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Hi Daniel Howe, I understand the concern and logic and ask that you reach out to our support team and we can take a look at your account. In general, we're not offering an adjustment in pricing as a result of this but I can assure you that we're expending a lot of resources to restore this service. Customers are also welcome to port to a wireless carrier at any time and that will restore full SMS service for a number.
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Rob Brody, the fact of the matter is that since Feb 4, wireless carriers have been eating any messages we try to send through their service. Our recent update was simply to get our system to flash an error message rather than giving you false hope that the message was sent. At present, there are only a few use cases where we can offer outbound SMS:
- Register a toll free number through NumberGarage and send text messages
- Send text messages from a Canadian number to another Canadian number
- Register a campaign through String
I wish I had more options to offer but I just don't. Let me know if that adds any clarity to the situation.
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Thank you very much for clarifying this error message.
I'm going to limp this along for a short while in hopes there is a long term solution. Having to carry a 3rd cell phone plus cost is cumbersome.
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Thanks Rob Brody for understanding.
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"Register a toll free number through NumberGarage and send text messages".
Is a toll free number a long term solution for outbound SMS, or is that option also going to be shut down in the near future? And is a toll-free number even allowed for personal use? Or does that also require some business info / registration / paperwork?
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Hey Marc Martin, the toll free verification process is very similar to 10DLC -- we just have it built out on NumberGarage. It still takes up to 30 days to get approved but can be done through the online account. It does indeed require a business name and website but no EIN. And by website it can be a social media or review site or anything that shows you're somewhat legit. I hope that helps.
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Tell me understand this correctly if I go to number garage and purchase a toll free number and use that service I have to register it to a business name and show a website with that phone number on it I'm assuming. If I do that then I will be able to use number garage like I'm using number Barn right now for text messages? If I do that then I don't have to worry about porting that number to a cell phone and I can let the number board number just run its course and be done with it at some point. Is there any chance that the same thing will happen to toll free numbers or since we are registering it there shouldn't be an issue? Does it matter the type of business that it is tied to? And what other qualifications or needs do I have to have? Thank you very much this may be a solution. Even though I hate to change the phone number long-term it would be best. Thank you
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One more quick question at number garage I show they have toll free numbers and regular local numbers. Does this outbound texting to Major carriers and app phone numbers only work with the toll free numbers or will it work for local numbers also? If it will work for local numbers why can't we just Port our local number over to number garage system and continue to use texting? Maybe that's an obvious stupid question but that number garage they sell both local and toll free numbers so I'm not sure what the difference is. Thank you
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Hey Rob Brody Brody, yes that's correct regarding toll free texting. We built out that verification process on NumberGarage a couple of years ago and it works well. You can read more here: https://help.numberbarn.com/hc/en-us/articles/13688423223703-Toll-free-SMS-Verification
You can also purchase the number through NumberBarn and move it to NumberGarage as needed. This article shows you how to move them back and forth: https://help.numberbarn.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500008102301-How-can-I-move-my-NumberBarn-number-to-NumberGarage
We definitely have some work to do to bring our services together so they are better connected. I do confirm that outbound texting from a local number will not work on NumberGarage. The SMS service between NumberBarn and NumberGarage is identical EXCEPT for the toll free texting. I hope that helps.0 -
So if I understand the last message correctly, there is an option for companies to send bulk messages (via toll-free texting) but not an option for individuals to send the occasional p2p sms ?
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Jeremy thank you very much for clarifying. Will this solve my issue I will just go to number garage and get a toll free number and use whatever app is available for texting. I will keep my number with number born as it is for now for people that have that number and as I talk to them I will update them with a new number and that solves the issue. Thank you very much for the update $10 a month is a lot better deal than me having to carry another cell phone and pay 30 to 40 dollars a month. Thank you again for the great service and support
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Still holding out for a person-to-person solution, since that's what would be appropriate for me. Rather not have to make up some fake business with some fake website.
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Daniel Howe, yes through NumberGarage you can send/receive with a toll free number. The approval process does take about 30 days still and it's not a bulk SMS solution but works in the same way you've used NumberBarn for outbound texting in the past. Let me know if that helps.
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And would that toll-free number also be able to receive messages ?
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Daniel Howe absolutely! You can definitely receive inbound text messages on your toll-free number once it's all registered.
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I have got two numbers on order hoping those will be set up in the next few days. I'm going to test them out and see how it goes. I would like to see a little more robust texting app maybe just a few minor features such as being able to save a contact but with notes and possibly a profile picture. Kind of like your regular contacts doing your phone. Also being able to delete one individual text in a string of text would be nice but not urgent. Hoping this 800 or I should say toll free numbers work out for the long run it'll save me from having to additional phones to my main one. Thank you
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Hey Rob Brody, I will say that the String mobile app is further along in that regard. We don't do profile picture but certainly multiple telephone numbers, notes, address and more. Happy to help you try it out. Inbound texting will work on there as well. But I agree. I'd love to see this in the NumberBarn app in the future.
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I have not checked out string. I'm still waiting for two numbers with number garage to be processed. Because I need to be able to receive and send text messages to any type of phone number. I can live without the extras on the contact information if need be. I just of course have to have the functionality of being able to receive and send text messages. Hopefully my two toll free numbers will be available shortly kind of anxious to get those done and try them out. If those work okay I'll look closer at string but I don't know if using that method or service will allow in and outgoing text messages that's all I care about. I don't care about phone calls whatsoever I do all my business via text. No spamming text or group text it's all one-on-one with my clients but that's how we communicate
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Well I don't think that moving to number garage with a toll free number is the actual solution that has been described. From what I just received this morning it can only be used for sending promotional information to clients. This is not what I use my number for mine is strictly business / person to person texting. I don't send unsolicited text nor do I send promotional materials or anything like that. I use the texting app to receive and communicate with clients to book sessions. I was under the impression that that was going to solve the issue buying numbers over at number garage but now I'm thoroughly confused by the email I received today saying I have to show where customers are opting in to receive promotional material which I cannot do because I'm not sending promotional material.
Been pretty patient and understanding but this is dragging out months now and doesn't look like there's going to be any solution to this problem.
What disappoints me even more so is I still get spam text from app/burner numbers that are not registered but they are being set up and sent through broadband.com which is who the app named TextNow uses and their bypassing the filtering process at the major carriers. I'm not sure why they're allowed to send spamming mail without any type of authentication.
I am at a complete loss on the next step I've already spent money on two numbers and was getting ready to order my third to try and eliminate these issues and I don't think from my understanding from the email today that getting a toll free number at number garage is the solution. It would be great if somebody could advise on this
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Hey Rob Brody, I'm sorry to hear that's not a good solution for you. The thought was that you'd just get approved and then you can resume person-to-person texting with the toll-free number.
That said, if it's not going to work, I'll reach out to you individually and we'll make it right for you.
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I'm signing up with String to use the "30 day free trial" promoted by Numberbarn. However, String says it takes 30 days to approve my campaign. Does the 30 day free trial kick in after approval? Also, why does it take 30 days to approve? I'm associated to another business that uses Twilio, and they originally approved the "campaign" in a day or two.
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Hey Bob Gelhaus, As we've learned more about the process we're finding it's taking about 2 weeks to get someone to review your campaign. That's assuming you have a clear opt in statement on your website, privacy policy and terms and conditions.
That said, Twilio is likely closer to the aggregators and thus getting review and approval faster than we are. We are working to rectify this in the future.
Happy to make sure the free trial kicks in after 10DLC approval for sure.
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Jeremy, since this is for my business, can you help push things along over at String?
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Bob Gelhaus I just sent you an email about your campaign. Let me know if that came through. Happy to work with you to get that approved.
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