Texting Canadians and Americans: toll-free verification, 10DLC and consent

Which numbers can a business text from in the US and Canada?

Business texting in North America runs on three kinds of number, and each has its own approval process. Letters-only sender names, common in Europe, work in neither country.

Ordinary Canadian numbers have no business registration route like 10DLC, which is why business traffic to Canada goes through toll-free numbers and short codes.

What is A2P 10DLC, and how does registration work?

A2P 10DLC means application-to-person messaging over 10-digit long codes: business texts sent by software from ordinary local US numbers. The Campaign Registry runs the registration and describes 10DLC as a channel where brands and providers "are verified prior to being allowed to send messages." Brands cannot register directly; a messaging provider registers them.

1. Brand: your legal business name, tax ID (a US EIN, or a Canadian Business Number for a Canadian company), address, website and a business contact.
2. Vetting: an independent check gives the brand a trust score from 0 to 100, usually within one to seven business days, and it is renewed every year.
3. Campaign: what you will send and why, how people opt in, how they opt out, and sample messages. Carriers review it, which takes from a few days to about two weeks.
4. Numbers: every number that will send is attached to the approved campaign.

Expect one-time brand and vetting fees and a monthly campaign fee, on top of the cost of each text. The trust score then sets your volume. T-Mobile caps daily texts per brand by score, as published in Telnyx's carrier documentation (checked October 3, 2026):

Unvetted brands start at the lowest tier unless they are listed on the Russell 3000. AT&T sets throughput per campaign by use case and score, and Verizon filters content without publishing limits.

What is toll-free verification?

Toll-free numbers can send texts once they are verified. US carriers require verification for any toll-free number that texts; until it is done, throughput is limited and messages may be filtered. Verification is a one-time review handled by the carriers, and it typically takes one to two weeks.

• What you submit: your business details and website, the use case, how people opt in, and sample messages.
• New in 2026: since February 17, 2026, a business registration number, its type and the issuing country are required fields. For a Canadian company, that is the CRA Business Number.
• Volume: up to 20 messages a second once verified.
• Ongoing cost: texts are charged per message, without the monthly campaign fee that 10DLC carries.

The trade-off is presence. A toll-free number looks like a company line, while a local number looks like someone nearby. For texting Canadians, toll-free is the practical route.

How do you text Canadians from a business?

Canada has no 10DLC registry. Business texts to Canadian mobiles go out from verified toll-free numbers, which also reach the US, or from short codes, which the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) assigns through its txt.ca program. Messaging providers steer business traffic to these two routes because Canadian carriers filter application-to-person texts from ordinary numbers.

Short codes come with the strictest written rules in the market. The Canadian Common Short Codes Compliance Policies, updated in January 2026, say "What may be allowed under CASL may not be allowed" under them, and require:

• Consent before any message: "The sending of unsolicited messages is strictly prohibited."
• Implied consent only with "explicit approval from the wireless carriers," decided case by case.
• Consent that stays with the brand that collected it: only that organization may text the people who gave it.
• Bilingual keywords: STOP and ARRET to opt out, HELP for an English reply and AIDE for a French one, whatever language the program uses.
• Opt-outs kept under 4% of a program, as a recommended ceiling.

Those rules are written for short codes. For toll-free numbers that reach Canadians, honouring ARRET alongside STOP is a sensible default, since some recipients will reply in French.

What consent do you need to text Americans?

Under the FCC's rules for the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a telemarketing call made with an autodialer or an artificial voice to a mobile number needs the person's "prior express written consent." Texts count as calls under the TCPA, and the Supreme Court's 2021 autodialer case was itself about text messages. Written consent means "an agreement, in writing, bearing the signature of the person called" that clearly authorizes the seller to send them marketing messages that way.

• The rule follows the mobile number. It has no exception for business recipients, so a sales text to a prospect's cell phone is covered.
• The 2023 "one-to-one consent" rule is gone. In January 2025 the 11th Circuit vacated it, noting that the older 2012 written-consent rule "is not at issue." That rule stands.
• "Autodialer" is narrow. Since Facebook v. Duguid (2021), a device must use a random or sequential number generator to qualify. Whether a given sequencer qualifies is a question for lawyers; carrier rules require consent either way, so plan as if the TCPA applies.
• Opt-outs: a reply of "stop," "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel" or "unsubscribe" revokes consent, as does any other reasonable request, and it must be honoured within 10 business days.
• Quiet hours: no telephone solicitation before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., in the recipient's local time.
• Do Not Call: the national registry rules extend to texts sent to mobile numbers.

Some states add their own telemarketing and texting laws on top of these. Check the rules in the states you text into.

What do carriers expect, whatever the law says?

CTIA, the US wireless industry association, publishes the Messaging Principles and Best Practices that carriers and providers apply to business texting. Its starting point is plain: whether or not the law applies, senders are expected to get consent for any texts and express written consent for marketing ones. It sorts texts into three levels:

• A clear call to action at opt-in: who is texting, from which numbers, about what, any fees, and how to opt out.
• A confirmation text after opt-in, with the program name, a help contact, opt-out wording, how often you will text and any charges.
• Standard STOP wording in your texts, and respect for plain-language opt-outs such as "please opt me out." One confirmation text after an opt-out, then nothing more.
• No borrowed consent: an opt-in "should not be transferable or assignable," and senders "should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold, or shared."
• Records of every opt-in: when and how it happened, the wording shown, the campaign, the IP address, the number and who agreed.
• Links on a short-link domain of your own, leading to a site that names your business.

Can you send cold texts to B2B prospects?

In practice, no. A 10DLC campaign or a toll-free verification asks how people opt in, carriers review your traffic against what you registered, and CTIA rules out purchased lists. In the US the consent rule follows the mobile number, and in Canada CASL needs consent for any commercial text. A prospect's job title changes none of that.

Texting still earns a strong place in B2B outbound, in the moments where the person has asked for it:

• A prospect texts you first, or asks you to text them.
• Someone books a demo or fills in a form that clearly asks for permission to text.
• A customer or an active deal, where they gave you their mobile for updates.
• Reminders and confirmations for meetings they booked.

For everyone else, email and LinkedIn carry the outreach. Our guide to cold email under CASL covers the consent routes that work there.

Can you text from many numbers?

Yes, with care. CTIA tells senders not to "snowshoe," a technique "used to spread messages across many sending phone numbers or short codes," and says using several numbers for similar content may need special arrangements with providers. Two habits keep a number pool on the right side of that line:

• Register every number in the pool under your campaign, so carriers see one sender with one approved use.
• Spread leads across the numbers and keep each lead on one number. Texting one person from several numbers looks like filter evasion, and on their phone it splits the conversation into strangers.

That second habit is what Sticky SMS means: each lead stays with the first number that texted them.

A texting checklist for teams selling into the US and Canada

1. Pick the route per country: 10DLC or toll-free for US recipients, verified toll-free or a short code for Canadian ones.
2. Register before you send: brand and campaign for 10DLC, verification for toll-free, with your EIN or Business Number ready.
3. Write the opt-in the way you registered it: who you are, what you will text, how often, that rates may apply, and reply STOP to opt out.
4. Collect written consent for anything promotional, with the box unticked by default, and keep the record: time, source, wording, IP address and number.
5. Put opt-out wording in your texts, and make STOP, its plain-language variants and, for Canadians, ARRET work automatically.
6. Stop texting the moment someone opts out. The legal ceiling is 10 business days in both countries, and CTIA expects nothing after the opt-out confirmation.
7. Text between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the recipient's time zone, and screen US marketing lists against the national Do Not Call registry.
8. Keep each lead on one number, and register every number you use.
9. Text only people whose consent you collected yourself.
10. Keep one opt-out list across every tool and channel that can reach a person.

What is still grey?

• The FCC's "revoke all" provision, under which one opt-out would also cover a sender's unrelated automated calls and texts. We found no 2025 or 2026 Federal Register notice settling when it applies, so check its status before relying on either reading.
• Whether your sending software counts as an autodialer after Facebook v. Duguid.
• French keywords outside short codes. The bilingual rules are written for Canadian short codes, and we found no published equivalent for toll-free numbers.
• Implied consent for texts in Canada. CASL allows it in some cases, short code rules need carrier approval for it, and toll-free reviewers judge the opt-in you describe.
• State laws in the US, which vary from state to state and change often.

This post is general information about US and Canadian rules as of October 4, 2026, and it is not legal advice. For your own program, speak to a lawyer in each country you text into.

Where Duckrow fits

Duckrow is the texting provider inside your outbound suite, as Duckrow SMS. We provide your numbers and register them for you: under A2P 10DLC for US recipients, and as verified toll-free numbers for Canada. Your text steps then sit in the same sequence as email and LinkedIn.

• Sticky SMS keeps each lead on the number that first texted them, even when your workspace has many numbers, for every automated step and every reply your team sends by hand.
• Every automated text step ends with "Reply STOP to opt out, HELP for help" unless you have written your own STOP line.
• A STOP reply opts the lead out before the next send, and a reply on any channel ends that lead's sequence.
• Every text conversation sits in the unified inbox, next to email and LinkedIn replies.
• Your lead table can hold how and when each person agreed to texts as ordinary columns, so you can push only opted-in leads into text steps.

Duckrow does not decide consent for you. It keeps the numbers registered, each conversation on one line and the opt-outs automatic.