How to Complete A2P Setup

Before carriers will deliver your business texts reliably, they need to know who you are and what you send. That registration is called A2P 10DLC, and you complete it once from the dashboard.

What A2P Registration Is

A2P stands for application-to-person — messages sent by software rather than typed by a human on a personal phone. The standard for sending those messages over regular 10-digit local numbers is 10DLC. Carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) require every business to register before they will deliver A2P texts reliably. Without it, your texts get filtered, throttled, or dropped — even legitimate appointment reminders to customers who asked you to text them.

Registration has two parts that happen in order: a brand (who your business is) and a campaign (what kinds of messages you send and how people opt in). You submit the brand first; once it is approved you submit the campaign. To complete it you will provide:

  • Your legal business name, EIN, and registered address
  • An authorized contact name, email, and phone number
  • A campaign type and a plain-English description of your SMS use case
  • Sample messages that match what customers will actually receive
  • STOP, START, and HELP keyword responses
  • A description of your consent flow — how customers opt in to texts

Complete the Checklist

Open Dashboard > Compliance > A2P Setup. The page walks you through the checklist top to bottom.

  1. Open each checklist item to see exactly what information it needs.
  2. Fill in your business information — use the legal name and EIN exactly as they appear on your IRS paperwork, not a brand or trade name.
  3. Add the authorized contact details.
  4. Choose the campaign type and write the use-case description (for example, “appointment reminders and follow-ups for plumbing customers”).
  5. Add two or more sample messages. Include opt-out language in at least one (for example, “Reply STOP to opt out”).
  6. Confirm the STOP, START, and HELP keyword responses.
  7. Describe your consent flow so it matches how people actually opt in.
  8. Submit brand registration first.
  9. After brand approval, submit campaign registration.
Heads up: Do not run text campaigns before your registration is approved. Carriers will block most messages and your number can pick up a bad reputation that takes weeks to clean up.

Track Approval

The A2P Setup page shows the current registration status. You will see it move through states like not started, pending, approved, rejected, suspended, and complete.

  • Brand review commonly takes 1–2 business days.
  • Campaign review commonly takes 3–5 business days after brand approval.
  • Plan for the process to take up to two weeks end to end, and do not schedule a text launch against the optimistic end of that range.

Common Rejection Reasons

Most rejections come from small mismatches, not from anything wrong with your business. Fix the flagged item and resubmit — you do not start over.

  • •Business details don't match. The legal name, EIN, or address you entered does not match IRS records. Use the exact legal entity, not a DBA or marketing name.
  • •Vague use case. “Marketing” on its own is not enough. Say who you message and why.
  • •Sample messages missing opt-out language. At least one sample should show how recipients can stop.
  • •Consent flow unclear. The description must show that customers actively opt in — through an inbound call, a web form, or an SMS opt-in — not from a purchased list.
  • •Samples don't match the use case. If you registered for reminders, your examples should look like reminders.
SMS compliance: Only text people who have given appropriate consent, and keep opt-out language accurate in both your sample messages and your real ones.

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    How to Complete A2P Setup | KaiCalls Help