A2P means application-to-person: any message sent by software (TextBay included) instead of a thumb on a phone. US carriers require A2P traffic to identify itself, and 10DLC is the route most businesses use: sending from a normal 10-digit local number that has been registered.
The registration #
The registration happens once, in the Twilio console, and has two parts:
- A brand: who is sending. Your business identity, verified against registries.
- A campaign: what you send. A use case (marketing, notifications, and so on) with sample messages, attached to a Messaging Service that holds your numbers.
Until both exist and are approved, US carriers filter traffic from local numbers: messages show as Undelivered, typically with Twilio error 30034. This is a carrier rule, not a Twilio or TextBay one.
The tiers (“which package am I on?”) #
- Sole Proprietor: for individuals without a tax ID. Cheapest, quickest, and capped at low daily volume and one campaign.
- Low-Volume Standard: a registered business (EIN) with modest volume needs. Same registration shape as Standard with lower fees and lower throughput.
- Standard: full business verification, optional vetting, the highest throughput tiers.
TextBay reads your registration straight from Twilio: the US A2P row on the Twilio page shows your brand type and status (for example “Sole Proprietor brand, approved. 1 campaign is verified.”) the moment you connect. Twilio’s API reports Low-Volume Standard brands as Standard, so those two look the same there.
When 10DLC is not your problem #
- Toll-free numbers skip 10DLC and use their own one-time verification: Toll-free numbers.
- Short codes are approved per use case when you lease them: Short codes.
- Texting outside the US does not involve 10DLC at all.
The full registration walkthrough lives at Twilio: Twilio’s A2P 10DLC guide.