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US carrier registration

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United States carriers require every business to register before it can send text messages to American phones. It is a one-off process and Gorilla Dash makes the submission for you, but you have to supply the details and then wait.

Who needs it

  • Yes — a Gorilla Dash managed number in the United States.
  • No — Australian and New Zealand numbers. They are not subject to it.
  • No — your own Twilio account. Registration is on your account and is yours to handle.

Nothing sends until it is approved

AN UNREGISTERED NUMBER IS BLOCKED ON PURPOSE
Campaigns from an unapproved United States number are refused before they send. That is deliberate protection: an unregistered number does not fail visibly, it gets silently filtered by the carriers — you are billed for every message, nothing arrives, and the campaign reports success. Being blocked is much better than that.

A test send from the settings page still works while you wait, so you can check the number is alive.

What you need to hand

SectionWhat is asked
Your businessLegal business name, business type, tax number (your EIN for a US business), industry, website, regions you operate in.
Registered business addressThe address as registered. State is a two-letter code.
Authorised representativeSomebody who can commit the business — carriers may contact them to verify.
What you will sendWhat your messages are about, how people opt in, and two to five real example messages.
Your policy pagesA Privacy Policy URL and a Terms and Conditions URL. Both must be public https pages that open without a login.
The two policy pages are required, and carriers really do open them
A registration cannot be lodged without both URLs. The pages have to be reachable by anybody — a page behind a login, a staging address, or one that returns an error will fail the check. The terms page needs to cover your texting specifically: what you send, how often, that message and data rates may apply, and how to stop.

The "How people opt in" field is where most rejections are decided, because carriers want to see the exact consent wording your customers agreed to. The hint under the field lists everything they check for, and Insert a template that carriers accept fills the field with a compliant description built from your business name, website and the two policy URLs. Edit it so it describes what you actually do, rather than submitting it unchanged.

Check it before you submit

A rejected registration costs days, so it is worth using Check before submitting first. Gorilla Dash opens both of your policy pages, reads them alongside your opt-in description and example messages, and reviews the lot against the reasons carriers actually reject registrations for. It takes a short while, and the panel tells you what it is doing while it runs.

You get a verdict and a list of findings, each with wording you can use to fix it. Where the problem is the opt-in description, Use this wording writes the suggested version straight into the form. A page that will not open at all is always reported as a blocker, because carriers will not be able to open it either.

The check is advice, not a decision. Nothing is saved, passing it does not guarantee approval, and changing any of the fields it looked at clears the verdict so you are never acting on a stale result. It costs you nothing.

THE EXAMPLES MATTER
Carriers read them. Give real messages you actually intend to send, including the opt-out line — not placeholders. Vague or invented examples are a common reason for rejection.

How long it takes

Typically a few days, and up to a couple of weeks. You do not need to sit on the page — Gorilla Dash checks automatically and emails you the moment it completes. The status chip moves through Checking your business details, Registering your brand and Registering with carriers to Approved.

If it is rejected

The status shows Action needed with the reason. Where the carriers gave a reason, it is shown to you in their own words rather than as a code, so you can see exactly what they objected to. Correct the details and use Review and resubmit. The usual causes are a legal name that does not match the tax number, an address that is not the registered one, example messages that do not match what you described, and policy pages that do not mention texting.

A rejection at the carrier stage is corrected in place — your existing registration is updated and re-examined, rather than being thrown away and started again. Run Check before submitting on the corrected version before you resubmit; a second rejection for the same reason costs another wait.

Plan for it

Start registration well before the campaign you are planning. A promotion that depends on texting United States customers next week will not go out if you begin registering today.