Telephony & Texting Registration
Getting a phone number and the carrier approvals (brand and campaign) that business texting in the US and Canada requires — and why it’s worth starting today.
On this page
1Why registration is required
Every phone number in ClientTether is provided through Twilio, and US carriers only deliver business text messages (A2P — “application to person”) from numbers whose owner has been verified. That verification has two parts: a Brand (who you are, tied to your tax ID) and a Campaign (what you’ll send). Until both are approved, texting from the account doesn’t work. Approval is done by a third-party registry, not by ClientTether or Twilio, and can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks — start it on day one.
Your website has to be compliant first
Before you submit anything: every form on your website must tell people they’re opting in to automated texts and how to opt out, and your privacy policy must say mobile information is never shared with third parties for marketing and explain how to opt out. Registrations get rejected for this more than for anything else.
2The steps, in order
Everything happens in Settings → Telephony.
- Business Information. Switch on EIN if you have one and enter the legal business name, EIN / Tax ID, address, business type, industry and region exactly as they appear in your IRS EIN listing (Canadian businesses: as registered with the CRA). “XYZ Inc.”, not “XYZ”; the registered address, not a PO box; no DBA names. Add the point-of-contact details, with the phone number in
+1XXXXXXXXXXformat, and save. - Stop and check. Confirm the website requirements above, and have your Client Success Partner double-check the business details. A mismatch means Twilio may ask for your CP 575 or 147c IRS letter.
- Submit Brand. Pick the brand type — Standard for most businesses, Low-Volume Standard if you send fewer than about 3,000 message segments a day, or Sole Proprietor if you have no EIN (this one verifies you by texting a code to your mobile number). Submit it once and wait; the status shows on the tab.
- Campaign Registration. Once the brand shows APPROVED, tick I accept the carrier and CTIA guidelines, choose the use case that best matches what you send (Mixed, Marketing, Customer Care, Delivery Notification, Account Notification, Low Volume Mixed, Starter, and others — each shows its monthly carrier fee), describe the campaign’s purpose, answer the content questions (links, phone numbers, age-gated or lending content) and give sample messages that look like what you’ll really send.
- Phone number. Find Phone Number by area code, click a number to select it, and purchase it with the campaign. You can also transfer a number you already own into the brand.
If a submission is rejected, re-read the steps above; if nothing on your side needs fixing, email support@clienttether.com. Twilio may contact you directly during the process — watch for those emails.
3What the tab shows afterwards
- A2P Messaging Limits — your daily sending allowance, set by the registry’s trust score for your brand.
- Phone Number(s) — the numbers on the account, with Add Alternate Phone Number for extra lines.
- CNAM Registration — registers the caller-ID name shown when you call people.
- Move Phone Number to Brand Account — for sub-accounts in an Enterprise that registered one brand centrally; ask your administrator or CSM.
4Troubleshooting
Texts aren’t sending
Check the Telephony tab: the brand and the campaign must both show approved, and the number must be attached to the campaign. The Text Monitor in the user menu shows the carrier’s error message for each failed text.
The brand was rejected
Nearly always a mismatch between what you typed and the EIN record, or a missing privacy policy. Fix, then resubmit once.
How much does it cost?
The campaign types list their monthly carrier fee next to each option; those fees are set by the carriers, not ClientTether.
5Related pages
- Integrations Overview — the Text Monitor and other logs.
- Templates — writing the texts you’ll send.