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Register an A2P 10DLC brand, including sole proprietors

A brand is the legal entity behind your text messages, registered once with The Campaign Registry (TCR) before any campaign can send. This walks through every field the brand wizard asks for, including the sole-proprietor path that skips the EIN entirely, and what happens during TCR's identity review.

1. Choose an entity type

The first decision shapes every field after it. Five entity types are supported:

  • Private company: a privately held, for-profit business. Requires an EIN.
  • Public company: a publicly traded company. Requires an EIN.
  • Non-profit: a registered non-profit organization. Requires an EIN.
  • Government: a government entity or agency. Requires an EIN.
  • Sole proprietor: an individual doing business without a separate registered legal entity. No EIN required, no exceptions. See the dedicated section below.

Choosing wrong is not fatal early on: a brand still in draft or rejected status can be edited and resubmitted, including changing the entity type. Once a brand reaches needs_review or later, the wizard renders it read-only, so pick carefully once you are ready to submit for real.

2. The sole-proprietor path: no EIN required

Registering as a sole proprietor is a first-class, fully supported path, not a workaround. If you operate under your own name or a DBA without a separate EIN, this is the correct entity type, and the wizard hides the EIN field entirely rather than asking for one you don't have. The server enforces the same rule independently of the wizard: submitting entityType: SOLE_PROPRIETOR with an EIN attached is rejected, and submitting it without one is accepted.

In exchange for skipping the EIN, TCR classifies sole-proprietor brands into a reduced-throughput campaign class rather than the standard classes available to EIN-bearing entities. Campaigns registered against a sole-proprietor brand use the SOLE_PROPRIETOR use case specifically, which carries its own (lower) monthly fee and its own (lower) carrier-assigned daily sending ceiling. See the campaign fee table for exact numbers.

What a sole-proprietor registration still requires:

  • A contact name (your legal name, standing in for a company name).
  • A mobile phone number where you can be reached.
  • A physical business or home address (street, city, state, postal code).
  • A contact email address.
  • A vertical (the industry classification carriers use to categorize your traffic).

Sole-proprietor registration does not mean lighter identity review. TCR still runs its standard identity verification against the name, address, and contact details you provide; it just does not require a federal tax ID to do it, because a sole proprietor legally files taxes under their own Social Security number rather than a business EIN.

For every entity type other than sole proprietor, the wizard collects:

  • Legal business name: exactly as registered with your state or federal filing, not a DBA or marketing name.
  • EIN: your 9-digit federal Employer Identification Number.
  • Vertical: the industry classification carriers use to categorize your traffic (retail, healthcare, professional services, and so on).
  • Website: optional but recommended. A live website that matches your declared business improves review confidence.
  • Business address: street, city, state, and postal code.
  • Contact email and phone: email is required; phone is optional but recommended and speeds up review if TCR needs to reach you.

4. Submit and pay the registration fee

Submitting moves the brand from draft to needs_review and charges the registration fee to the card on file at that moment, not before. Brand registration is a one-time $9.00, flat regardless of entity type: a sole proprietor and a public company pay the same $9.00, because the fee covers the identity-verification work itself, not the entity's complexity. Optional identity vetting is a separate, higher-assurance check you can order after the brand registers, one-time $49.00.

Line itemWhen it's chargedAmount
Brand registrationOnce, when you submit your brand$9.00
Identity vetting (optional)Ordered separately, after your brand registers$49.00
201 Created (needs_review)
{
  "brand": {
    "id": "brd_4kQ9mN2pT7sX1cW8",
    "status": "needs_review",
    "entityType": "SOLE_PROPRIETOR",
    "legalName": "Alicia Torres",
    "ein": null,
    "vertical": "RETAIL",
    "website": "https://aliciatorresstudio.com",
    "address": {
      "street": "118 Maple Ave",
      "city": "Austin",
      "state": "TX",
      "postalCode": "78701"
    },
    "contactEmail": "[email protected]",
    "contactPhone": "+15125550142",
    "createdAt": "2026-07-26T14:02:00.000Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-07-26T14:02:00.000Z"
  }
}

If TCR rejects the brand, the registration fee is refunded automatically. Nothing is charged for a brand that sits as a draft and is never submitted. The only charge that sticks is a registration that TCR actually approves.

5. TCR's identity verification is asynchronous

Submitting a brand does not verify it instantly. TCR runs its own identity-verification process against the legal name, EIN (when applicable), address, and contact details you submitted, checking them against third-party business and identity data sources. This review happens off the request path: the submit call returns needs_reviewimmediately, and the brand's status updates later, typically within a business day or two, once TCR finishes.

A brand moves through this sequence: draft (editable, unsubmitted) → needs_review (submitted, awaiting TCR) → registered (approved, can back campaigns) or rejected(with a reason, editable and resubmittable). There is no way to force synchronous approval; polling the brand's status or watching for the registration's webhook event is the correct way to know when it resolves.

If a brand is rejected

A rejected brand carries a review note explaining why, and returns to an editable state so you can fix the specific field TCR flagged and resubmit. Common rejection reasons are a legal name that does not match official records, an address that cannot be verified, or (for non-sole-proprietor entities) an EIN that does not match the declared legal name. The registration fee from the rejected submission is refunded, and resubmitting after a fix charges the fee again as a new submission.

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