Service · Compliance & deliverability
SMS compliance: the part nobody sees until it fails
TCPA statutory damages run $500 per text and up to $1,500 when willful, with no cap on the total. Meanwhile carriers filter unregistered or sloppy traffic without telling you. This service builds the invisible layer: registration, consent records, timing rules, and throughput plans that keep both regulators and carriers off your back.
What changed in TCPA rules recently?
Three things moved between 2025 and 2026, and stale advice on any of them is dangerous. The FCC's one-to-one consent rule was struck down by the Eleventh Circuit in January 2025, so the older prior-express-written-consent standard governs. The revocation rule took effect April 11, 2025: an opt-out sent by any reasonable method, including words like STOP, QUIT, END, REVOKE, or CANCEL, must be honored within 10 business days. And in June 2025 the Supreme Court's McLaughlin decision freed district courts from FCC interpretations, after which TCPA class filings rose roughly 95% year over year (per Cooley's analysis).
What does registration actually cost?
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 10DLC brand registration | ~$44–$48 one-time | $4.50 for low-volume/sole-prop brands |
| Campaign vetting | $15 one-time per campaign | charged on every standard campaign |
| Campaign monthly fee | $1.50–$10/mo | low-volume mixed vs standard use case |
| Carrier fee per SMS | $0.0035–$0.0045 | AT&T $0.0035; T-Mobile/Verizon $0.0045 |
| Toll-free verification | Free, ~3–5 business days | 3 messages/sec once verified |
| Short code lease | $500/mo ($1,000 vanity) | for high-throughput programs |
Figures from Twilio's US SMS pricing page and campaign-vetting documentation, checked July 2026. Carrier fees shift quarterly; T-Mobile's went up in January 2026.
How does throughput planning work?
Your 10DLC trust score decides how fast you can send: 225 messages per second across the big three carriers at scores of 85 and up, 120 in the 65 to 84 band, and as little as 3 for low-volume registrations. T-Mobile adds daily brand caps, from 2,000 messages a day at the bottom scores to 200,000 at the top. We plan launch ramps inside those limits so a Black Friday send does not stall mid-queue. The 18-day launch in the skincare launch write-up included this exact planning step, and our Process page shows where it lands in the sequence.
Compliance questions we get asked
A2P 10DLC is the US carrier system for business texting over standard 10-digit numbers. Registration is mandatory: unregistered traffic is blocked outright. Expect roughly $44 to $48 one-time for a standard brand, $15 vetting per campaign, and $1.50 to $10 monthly depending on use case. Your trust score then sets throughput, from 3 to 225 messages per second.
Federal TCPA rules bar marketing texts before 8am or after 9pm in the recipient's local time zone. Florida, Oklahoma, and Washington tighten that window to 8am to 8pm, and Texas restricts sends to 9am to 9pm plus a noon start on Sundays. Quiet-hours class actions were a dominant suit type in 2025 and 2026, so we QA every send's timing by state.
Usually carrier filtering, surfaced as Twilio error 30007 or a silent delivery-rate drop below the 96.6% campaign benchmark. Common triggers: missing opt-in proof, public URL shorteners, identical high-volume blasts, restricted SHAFT content, or ramping volume faster than your trust score allows. We diagnose the trigger, fix the content or registration, and rebuild your sending pattern.
Find out if your program is exposed
Bring your opt-in flow and last month's sends to the strategy call. We'll flag consent gaps, timing violations, and filtering risks on the spot.
Get a free strategy callOr email contact@coolnetworky.com