About Commio
When it comes to high-impact messaging solutions, Commio is redefining the communications landscape with its uniquely customizable, cloud-based communications API platform. Seamless integration, competitive pricing, an unmatched phone number inventory, plus U.S.-based customer support and education, make it easy to see why they’re trusted by 1,500 companies and some of the world’s largest brands.
For over a decade, Commio has been helping customers create greater peace of mind and eliminate unnecessary costs and complexity, across all major verticals. An important factor in Commio’s success is their symbiotic partnership with Syniverse. This support allows Commio to help customers implement powerful A2P campaigns with local 10DLC (10-digit long code) numbers.
In an environment that’s heavily regulated, Commio’s unmatched customer support and a dedicated vetting team at Syniverse, allow them to provide quick 10DLC campaign approvals that make them an industry leader in this space. Together, Commio and Syniverse are dedicated to clearing the constantly shifting 10DLC hurdles to keep customers’ critical messages flowing.
The 10DLC Challenge
Businesses are drawn to 10DLC for many reasons, including lower costs, the power to send large volumes of text messages quickly and securely, and the familiarity gained by using local phone numbers. It’s also a more efficient way to optimize A2P messaging. But the landscape of 10DLC is constantly evolving, posing several challenges.
One of the biggest difficulties businesses face is staying up to date on ever- changing Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations, understanding CTIA/Carrier Codes of Conduct, and Direct Connect Aggregator (DCA) vetting procedures. Failure to comply can lead to long wait times and campaign rejections during the registration process. This moving target, along with additional surcharges, forced a number of companies back to traditional email and print advertising, even some large Fortune 50 brands. Businesses are still talking about potential penalties for infractions that loom with larger carriers, some with a penalty of up to $10,000.
Additionally, these regulatory and carrier changes can happen fast. “It’s common for brands to fall victim to last-minute rules changes that sink their campaigns,” says Scott Navratil, Vice President, Customer Retention and Growth at Commio. “For a lot of customers, it’s critical, number one, to have a provider that can keep up with and understand the changes, and also update their technology, almost on the fly, to accommodate it.” Without the right provider, turnaround times for getting campaigns approved can be slow, with approvals taking up to four weeks.
Commio understands these challenges all too well. “When campaign registration became a thing for 10DLC it was a huge sea change in the industry,” says Tim McLain, Director of Marketing at Commio. “There was so much resistance to registering and, in the beginning, people ignored it. Then the deadlines started arriving and people were rushing. We
had to align our whole team around – ‘How can we make this a more seamless transition for our customers’? It wasn’t a hundred percent easy.”
To stay on top of the 10DLC messaging revolution and provide top shelf service at scale, Commio understood the importance of having the right partner who operates with the same level of commitment to its customers.
Rising campaign approval rates, lower spam rates
The upward progression of Commio’s approval ratings and lower spam rates are a testament to their powerful partnership with Syniverse.
~80%
~80%
campaign approval rates
1%
1%
from September 2023 to February 2024, SPAM MT (MMS) was reduced to less than 1%.
The Solution
Commio Chooses Syniverse
A few years ago, Commio began to experience communication delays and other issues with their 10DLC service provider. It started to affect the amount of traffic and type of business they were able to send to them. Considering the nature of the 10DLC environment and challenges that already exist, they knew they needed to make a change. That’s when they reached out to Syniverse.
“Syniverse was able to quickly get things moving within, I would say, a week, which is unheard of in the space. We were blown away by how fast and nimble Syniverse was,” says Navratil.
"The fact that we have access to a dedicated vetting team at Syniverse is the reason we’re still here."
- Scott Navratil, Vice President, Customer Retention & Growth, Commio
A partnership committed to customer experience
Syniverse has vast strategic relationships with carriers, partners, and investments that allow them to leverage their complete portfolio of assets to provide the best possible delivery of messaging at a global scale. They’ve been an important player in establishing 10DLC carrier standards. Though many messaging companies have been talking about 10DLC for some time, none have matched the reliable rollout at Syniverse.
Commio has direct and priority access to the Syniverse vetting team. This trusted relationship enables them to provide messaging solutions with maximum efficiency. Once submitted, Commio gets campaign feedback from Syniverse that is quick, clear, and concise, making correction and turnaround times fast. Campaigns can be approved within 30 minutes to an hour. With other providers, it could be up to a month, especially if escalation is required. The current target campaign approval rate with Syniverse is 80%. They pre-vet customers to get any potential issues on the table from day one. They also give positive and honest feedback and provide education around how 10DLC works.
“Our goal is to get your campaign and brands registered, set up and running, make sure we’re doing everything the right way, making sure your use case is good and we’re not running afoul of any rules. With Syniverse, we’ve been able to do all of that and get those times as low as humanly possible. We have all the right things in place. Working with Syniverse,
as well as our technology, our team, and being thoroughly focused on customers, has added up to our success and led us to where we are today,” says McLain.
Politics, trust, and 10DLC
Commio’s APIs, throughput, and direct connection with the carriers, thanks to Syniverse, make them a great fit across industries. But the Commio + Syniverse connection is especially powerful in the political space.
One of the things political customers want is high volume messaging and local phone numbers. That’s where 10DLC comes in. Commio is also a LEC and has a wealth of numbers — one of the largest number availabilities in the entire marketplace, in all 50 states, and can activate them within minutes. They can custom order into any state and get local numbers. And that’s what political customers crave for their campaigns.
“They could pick anybody they want, but they’ve insisted that Commio is one of the platforms they will use for the 2024 election season. We give them comparative pricing and we’re advocates for them. They trust us and know that we understand the ecosystem. We know what’s required. We can help push to get things done when things seem to be stalled out,” says Navratil.
"It’s because of the relationship we’ve built with Syniverse that people are moving into 10DLC."
- Tim McLain, Director of Marketing, Commio
A bright future of speed and security at scale
With the affordability and flexibility of local phone numbers, the future of A2P messaging tilts toward
more businesses utilizing 10DLC. And the technology surrounding 10DLC continues to improve. At Syniverse, anti-spam filters continue to get smarter and will continue to be leveraged to find bad actors or bad traffic. Syniverse also aims to further protect customer credentials to prevent campaigns from being hacked.
It’s a whole new world with 10DLC now that things are more regulated. Things are smoother and more consistent, and because SMS and MMS aren’t going anywhere, Commio believes more people will return to the fray. McLain says, “10DLC is probably the most sought-after flavor of messaging. The help from Syniverse has made 10DLC a really important part of our matrix of service offerings.”
McLain believes that the reason they can provide people with a choice today, is because of their relationship with Syniverse. He adds, “It’s because of what we’ve built with Syniverse that people are moving into 10DLC.” Navratil echoes that belief. He says any short-term pain they encountered, working through the 10DLC changes, has been transformed by a partnership with Syniverse. ”The fact that we have access to a dedicated team at Syniverse is the reason we’re still here.”
Learn more about Syniverse 10DLC Messaging Solutions or contact us today.
