Carrier filtering is a type of flag imposed by the major US-based Telco carrier providers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.). It is experienced before an SMS is about to be delivered to their customers from an account that has triggered algorithms designed to identify noncompliant behavior. This is an anti-spam defense mechanism where messages are not delivered and are labeled as message error 30007.
Once a phone number is flagged, other numbers that share the account may also be flagged.
There are many reasons why a carrier violation can happen, this article will explain the the best solutions to follow.
Why this happens
A contact has flagged the phone number. Once a phone number is flagged, all other numbers that share the same team account could also be flagged.
Your first message to a new contact needs to have a Sender ID and an opt-out reminder. If you are texting this contact for more than a month, you need to include an opt out reminder once a month.
A public/free URL shortener was included in the SMS message body. This is not allowed.
A word was used that triggered the block. Generally caused by profanity, violence or substance related terms.
Your opt-in method was monitored, and was found to not be following the compliance guidelines to pass A2P 10DLC.
Prevention With Behavior
Contacts that are not aware that they could opt-out by simply replying STOP, are likely to report confusing or unwanted texts to their carriers. We put together a few tips to help you avoid carriers filtering your messages.
Make sure your contacts opt-in via the affected SMS channel. (Or at least opted-in to receive messages from your organization)
Make sure that any existing contacts are reminded that they can opt-out periodically. (once the first time and again monthly is perfect)
Introduce yourself and your Organization in your initial message.
Make sure that you are sending links that are not part of Bitly (or other public URL Shorteners).
Profanity, violence, or substance related terms are known to trigger compliance. Keep it clean.
If a user asks to be removed from your SMS list but does not invoke a keyword like "STOP" opt them out manually to ensure they are off your list.
Validate your contact list's phone numbers with PhoneCheckr to reduce the number of times you would message a landline or another number that can not take an SMS message.
Check Your Opt-In Method For Mandatory SMS Disclaimers
Since carrier filtering is triggered by something that is breaking the rules, this would also apply to any mandatory SMS disclaimers that are missing from the method of opt-in. This tends to happens to a compliance-approved account that was able to get approved, but was monitored and found to not have any current SMS disclaimers.
Please review SMS Opt-In Guides and compare your opt in method for any potential missing disclaimers, if any missing disclaimers are identified, edit the opt-in method to follow the most up-to-date guidelines.
If you believe that the carrier filtering experienced is an error while you have followed all the suggestions on this article, please reach out to the Salesmsg Support team with proof, so that they can escalate the issue at a carrier level.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my message was not delivered and I received an error?
Review this article to help you Troubleshoot message errors. Here is also a webinar about the topic on YouTube.
How do I know if my messages are being filtered by a carrier?
In most cases, you will notice your message was delivered to your contacts, but there may be a couple of contacts who did not receive your message. Remember to hover over the error to learn why your message was not delivered.
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