A2P 10DLC Brand Approval Best Practices for Sparkforge

When you register your A2P brand, Sparkforge Phone submits your business data to The Campaign Registry (TCR). TCR vets the brand, runs Secondary Vetting, and issues a Trust Score that determines your messaging throughput and daily T-Mobile limits. Submit clean data and your score goes up; submit mismatched data and the brand can be rejected.

What an A2P brand is

An A2P brand represents the legal business entity sending application-to-person SMS. It captures:

• Legal business name as recognized by the IRS.
• Entity type (LLC, Corporation, Sole Proprietor).
• The official identity tied to all your registered campaigns.
• The accountability layer carriers use to filter and trust your traffic.

How approval works

TCR runs primary vetting first. Sparkforge then submits the brand for Secondary Vetting, which can raise your throughput and Trust Score. Once vetting completes, you get a Trust Score that drives your long-code messaging throughput on U.S. networks.

Best practices to maximize your Trust Score

Use a valid EIN for U.S. companies — not DUNS

• Standard A2P 10DLC registration in the U.S. requires an EIN.
• DUNS numbers fail Standard registration. They only fit Business Profile creation when you're using Stir/Shaken for voice and skipping U.S. A2P messaging.
• For non-profits and political organizations, the EIN must match the legal name on the IRS Tax-Exempt Organizations list or Registered Political Organizations list.

Enter the legal name exactly as the IRS has it

Pull the legal name from your CP 575 EIN Confirmation Letter. The W-2 and W-9 versions can differ. The legal name and EIN must match what's on the CP 575 exactly.

If you don't have the CP 575, contact your accountant or finance office. If it's lost, request a 147c letter from the IRS.

Submit the first line of the IRS letter only. "ACME LLC" — not "ACME LLC Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald MBR". Extra text causes rejections.

Tax IDs for non-U.S. companies

• Every Business Profile needs a valid Tax ID.
• Standard A2P 10DLC for international entities requires a Tax ID from the home country.
• Non-U.S./Canada entities may face additional vetting and lose access to low-volume Standard registration.

Country-specific guidance

Canada

Canadian brand registration accepts only the Business Number (BN), not Corporation/Incorporation/Registry IDs. Use the first 9 numeric digits (BN-9). Example: from 123456789RT0001, submit 123456789.

Europe

Use the VIES VAT number lookup before submitting.

Australia

Use the Australian Business Number (ABN) and verify it on the official ABN Lookup tool.

New Zealand

Use the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) and the official NZBN lookup tool.

Hong Kong

Use the Companies Registry (CN) number from the official CN lookup.

Other countries

Submit the numeric portion of your VAT ID. If you don't have one, use the country's primary corporation registration number or tax ID.

Common Tax ID errors

• Using a DBA, trade name, or messaging-provider name instead of the legal name.
• Abbreviating the legal name. It must match the IRS filing exactly.
• Entering an invalid EIN or non-U.S. company ID.
• Submitting a DUNS in the EIN field for a U.S. company.
• Using an SSN. SSN means you're a sole proprietor — register a Sole Proprietor brand.

Validation tools

• U.S. businesses: verify the EIN with HIPAA Space lookup and use that listed name.
• ISVs with multiple brands: TINCheck offers subscription EIN verification.
• Non-profits: use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.

Newly issued EINs take a few weeks to propagate across third-party validation databases. If your brand fails on a tax ID mismatch right after registering the EIN, send federal-level documentation to support for manual verification.

Check your business address

Mismatches in any of these can lower your Trust Score:

• Street address
• City
• State
• Postal/zip code
• Country

Submitting a local branch address instead of the registered company address counts as a mismatch.

Stock exchanges (public companies)

For public for-profit entities, the stock ticker and exchange must match official sources. Accepted values:

NONE, NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, AMX, ASX, B3, BME, BSE, FRA, ICEX, JPX, JSE, KRX, LON, NSE, OMX, SEHK, SGX, SSE, STO, SWX, SZSE, TSX, TWSE, VSE, OTHER

Other Trust Score factors

You can't influence these directly, but they affect the score:

• Company size: employee count and revenue from independent sources.
• Years in operation: business age and domain age.

Frequently asked questions

I see "Maximum 3 tries exhausted, please reach out to support." What now?

Send support the CP 575 form for the sub-account along with the location ID. Support forwards the CP 575 plus the Account SID and Brand SID for manual brand approval. Match the legal name to the CP 575 exactly — not the W-2 or W-9. If you've lost the CP 575, request a 147c from the IRS.

My EIN is brand new and registration keeps failing.

EINs take 30-90 days to propagate into TCR's validation sources. Either wait and retry, or pay the $10 appeal fee with the complete CP 575 PDF (not screenshots) attached.

Is an EIN mandatory for U.S. brand registration?

Yes for Standard. DUNS is rejected and leaves the brand Unverified. Non-U.S. entities use their country's tax ID equivalent: BN9 for Canada, Company Number for the UK, ACN for Australia.

I got "We are unable to retrieve your TCR Trust Score."

The Aegis vetting vendor occasionally has delays in Secondary Vetting. Allow up to 7 business days. If the brand isn't approved after that, contact support.

Brand registration failed. Why?

Common reasons: business registration number doesn't match the legal name; stock symbol or ticker doesn't match brand info; the entity couldn't be verified as a U.S. non-profit or government entity. Update the field that's wrong, or supply documentation for manual verification.

How do I raise a low Trust Score?

Confirm the EIN, legal name, and address are exact and consistent with IRS records. If the score stays low after that, contact support. Trust Score reflects your overall brand footprint, not just submitted data.

Another company acquired mine. Whose info do I use?

Use the business info you'd file taxes under at that moment.

My business info changed. How do I update the brand?

Once a brand and Business Profile are approved, you can't edit them through the console or API. Contact support with the changes.