Holiday Message Prep: How to Maximize 10DLC Deliverability and Minimize Costs for BFCM 2025

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are make-or-break moments for Brands—and the platforms powering their campaigns. In 2025, success isn’t just about creative execution. It’s about compliance, deliverability, and cost control.

With higher A2P 10DLC fees, tighter enforcement, and no room for unregistered traffic, platforms that fail to prepare could face blocked messages, wasted spend, and missed ROI—right when timing matters most.

If you're a marketing platform supporting high-volume SMS and MMS campaigns, this is your call to get ahead.

What’s Different This Year

1. Unregistered Traffic? Not Happening.

Due to Syniverse’s registration deadline extension, some unregistered 10DLC traffic was still able to reach consumers last BFCM. That won’t be the case in 2025. 

As of February 1, 2025, all 10DLC traffic must be registered through The Campaign Registry (TCR), no exceptions. Unregistered messages will be blocked entirely.

This is the first BFCM where every 10DLC message must be registered to be delivered.

What to do now:

• Review your customers' currently registered Campaigns
• Identify any upcoming messaging needs or new use cases
• Proactively register any new Campaigns before November
• Flag any customers hitting T-Mobile daily limits and advise additional Vetting if needed
• Equip your customers (and their customers) with clear timelines—registration takes time, and holiday queues can delay approvals

This isn’t just about staying compliant—it’s about ensuring your platform is ready to scale when demand peaks.

2. TCR Fees Are Higher—And Mistakes Are More Expensive

As of August 1, 2025, The Campaign Registry (TCR) increased its Brand and Campaign registration fees. Here’s what changed:

At scale, these increases significantly impact your customers’ registration costs—especially if Campaigns need to be re-submitted due to errors or missing information.

The longer it takes to get registered, the longer it takes to start sending—meaning more spend with zero ROI.

For ISVs, the message is clear: If your provider doesn’t support fast, effective, first-time Campaign registrations, it could cost you (and your customers) during your busiest season.

Telgorithm supports accurate, compliant registrations with best-practice templates, expert support, and streamlined workflows—helping you get approved the first time, faster.

3. T-Mobile’s Daily Messaging Caps Still Apply

T-Mobile enforces strict daily message caps per Brand, based on each Campaign’s Vetting Score. These caps range from 2,000 to 200,000+ messages per day.

Once a Brand hits its daily limit:

• Messages begin to fail
• You still get charged per failed message
• Deliverability and performance take a hit—just when it matters most

At Telgorithm, we analyzed messaging volumes across our customer base and found that without Smart Queueing, between 5–13% of all SMS and MMS traffic would have exceeded T-Mobile’s limits and failed every month.

That’s thousands of undelivered messages—and thousands of dollars in avoidable costs. Not to mention missed marketing ROI opportunities during the busiest time of year for your customers. 

Our Smart Queueing technology dynamically paces outbound messages to stay within each Campaign’s limits—preventing failures and protecting your margins when volume spikes.

How to Prep Now (the Telgorithm Way)

1. Audit and Register Campaigns Now

• Get ahead of the BFCM traffic jam
• Register new Campaigns for any additional messaging needs
• Confirm your customers throughput limits are sufficient—and build a plan if they’re not
• Ensure your current provider can support accurate, fast registration (or start evaluating one that can)

2. Protect Deliverability with Smart Queueing

Carrier filtering and throughput enforcement are two of the biggest risks to A2P performance during BFCM. Telgorithm’s Smart Queueing is built to eliminate both.

Unlike traditional providers that send messages blindly or too fast, Smart Queueing manages each Campaign’s traffic based on:

• Approved throughput limits (like T-Mobile’s Brand caps)
• Carrier-specific rules and regulations
• Message type (SMS vs MMS)
• Campaign delivery prioritization

So your customers can ensure every text gets delivered during BFCM. 

3. Control Messaging Costs with Built-In Safeguards

In A2P messaging, cost isn’t just about message count—it’s about message quality.

Telgorithm helps you reduce unnecessary spend by:

• Preventing failed messages with Smart Queueing
• Streamlining Campaign setup to avoid re-submission fees
• Optimizing message types to avoid costly MMS when SMS is sufficient
• Providing proactive performance monitoring to catch deliverability issues before they impact spend

Instead of reacting to high fees after the fact, Telgorithm gives you tools to manage costs up front—while improving performance across your platform.

This holiday season, cost control starts with deliverability discipline.

4. Planning to Support Sole Proprietors? Know the Requirements

If your customers serve seasonal or small businesses—think independent retailers, local service providers, or side hustles—there’s a good chance some will be Sole Proprietors.

Sole Proprietor 10DLC registration comes with its own set of requirements, including specific Brand, Campaign, and phone number limitations, two-step validation, and monthly reporting. 

The benefit? You can still get these senders registered and compliant for BFCM without forcing them into a full business registration—if your provider supports it.

Most API providers don’t. Telgorithm does, and we’re actively powering Sole Proprietor messaging for customers like Constant Contact.

Review your customer base now to see if Sole Proprietor support is needed, and ensure you’re partnered with a provider who can register and approve them in time for the holidays.

Don’t Let Compliance Kill Your Conversions

A2P messaging is more expensive, more regulated, and more competitive than ever. But with the right platform in your corner, compliance doesn’t have to be a roadblock—it can be your competitive edge.

Telgorithm is 10DLC-first. Our infrastructure is purpose-built for platforms that want to scale messaging the right way—with performance, compliance, and cost efficiency baked in.

Ready to future-proof your BFCM messaging? Let’s make this your most successful—and stress-free—holiday season yet. Contact us today!