As part of AT&T’s new policies and code of conduct, the below will be effective immediately and replaces any best practices or SPAM policies previously communicated.
Shared Shared shortcodes Services are prohibited. No new shortcodes will be approved. All existing shared shortcodes will be terminated at a future date to be determined and will be consistent with the commercial availability of 10DLC (10 digits long code) A2P messaging.
The below campaign and message types are strictly prohibited on AT&T’s network. Existing campaigns of the below nature on dedicated shortcodes will be terminated in early Q1 2019.
SMS A2P messaging may not be used for affiliate lead and/or commission generation. AT&T may block and/or terminate messaging campaigns and/or accounts which AT&T, at its sole discretion, determines to be affiliate-related.
Campaigns Prohibited:
• Loan advertisements with the exception of messages from direct lenders for secured loans
• Credit repair
• Debt relief
• Work from home, 'secret shopper', and similar advertising campaigns
• Lead generation campaigns that indicate the sharing of collected information with third parties
• Campaign types not in compliance with recommendations of or prohibited by the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook, Version 1.7 or later.
Messaging Prohibited:
• Message content that deceives or threatens consumers is not permitted
• Message streams that result in excessive complaints or STOP commands typically indicate an unwanted message campaign and will not be allowed to continue
• Phishing
• Fraud or scams
• Deceptive marketing
• Distribution or malware or app downloads from non-secure locations
• Loan, debt consolidation, debt relief, and student loan programs from any enterprise this is not able to grant loans itself, affiliate lead generation for these financial programs are prohibited
• Affiliate marketing programs that seek to obtain opt-in subscriber lists
If a Message Sender is observed sending any of the above-listed disallowed content, then an account review may be performed by AT&T or its agents. This review can result in the suspension of sending rights for a provisioned phone number or shortcodes; restriction of high-throughput access; suspension of provisioning rights for new phone numbers or shortcodes; and/or suspension of all network services.
What's the timeline?
AT&T has provided dates for the termination of Prohibited Campaigns running on shared codes (1/1/19) as well as dedicated codes (2/1/19). As for existing shared codes running clean traffic, they have noted that they will give ample notice of termination date of 3 months prior to any termination and will likely coincide with the commercial availability of 10DLC.
What's Next for the businesses using shared shortcodes?
If your business is using a shared shortcode for high volume outbound messaging, we recommend you to switch to a dedicated shortcodes , if your messages to AT&T in under 1000 messages a day, we will provide a 10DLC for your account automatically to avoid service disruption.
TXTImpact is also offering 6 months free Shortcode hosting service for all clients looking to switch to a dedicated shortcode. Please contact sales at 1-800-605-0280 to discuss your account.
