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Is there a hard cutoff date for our SMS messaging if the campaign is not approved by March 31st 2023?

@Mike Dickson

RingCentral will continue to advocate on behalf of customers who are in the TCR registration process to work to prevent any service disruption.

Where can I find the guidelines you supplied?

@Mike Dickson This link might help:
https://api.ctia.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/190719-CTIA-Messaging-Principles-and-Best-Practices-FINAL.pdf?page=12

@Mike Dickson The short answer - yes.
Any business using SMS/texting for one-offs, appt. reminders, friendly updates, texts to internal team members, or informational shares has to register the same as businesses that do big marketing campaigns via text.

I operate a professional services practice. Over the years my clients learned they could text my office number which typically set the text conversation in motion, or they would ask me to text them. I do not use texting to market or sell or the like. My questions are: (1) does the consent letter requirement apply to my business? (2) how do I prove Implied Consent? (3) is there a sample letter(s) available for this purpose?

thanks

So reading the CTIA-Messaging-Principles-and-Best-Practices- If we initiate the conversation p2p we have to include a "Stop" option in the message?

@Mike Dickson Hopefully, these guidelines will be helpful:

Implied Consent (Conversational Messaging Content)

• First message is only sent by a Consumer

• Consumer initiates the conversation and the business simply responds.

• Does NOT provide consent for informational, promotional, or future messaging unless recipient provides consent during conversation

Express Consent (Informational Messaging Content)

• Consumer needs to agree to receive texts for a specific purpose when they give the business their mobile numbers

• Consent must be specific for SMS, general language including “opt into communications” is not considered sufficient (instead say “opt into receiving SMS)

• Does NOT provide consent to be notified of promotional messages unless recipient provides consent to be added to the marketing list.

Express Written, and Logged Consent (Promotional Messaging Content)

• Consumer needs to agree to receive texts for a specific purpose when they give the business their mobile numbers

• Consent must be specific for SMS, general language including “opt into communications” is not considered sufficient (instead say “opt into receiving SMS)

• Businesses that already ask Consumers to sign forms or submit contact information can add a field to capture the Consumer’s consent

• Consent must be logged as outlined below

Under the implied consent guidelines, if consumer (internal staff) messages business first then consent is granted for a response.

If business follows up the next day with an additional message, and the consumer has not replied to the previous message, that would be considered "without" consent.

Correct?

In the above scenario, the only way the business could send a conversational P2P text, where the business was the initiator, would be to have written consent of the consumer?

You are correct in that the implied consent provided for a conversation does not provide consent for additional or separate conversations, or to add them to an SMS list to send future messages.

If it is a continuation of the conversation, I think the consent would rollover (ie "let me get back to you tomorrow..." "Good morning, I just got an update..."). However if it is a separate conversation/ topic, then consent would need to be obtained prior to messaging them.

The good news is conversational messages have the lowest consent burden, either implied - or you can get verbal OR written consent. This means you can simply ask them on the phone or in a conversation, and if they agree you now have consent to send them conversational messages regardless of who initiatives the message. This consent also does not need to be logged.

As with any type of message, you still need to let the recipient withdraw consent at any time.

Also, I have clients, not consumers (ie, general public customers) and all my services and communications are based on a signed engagement letter, so it seems like these rules don't apply to my business. However, I can add text to my engagement letter that offers them the option to OPT'd out at any time. Would this be acceptable under the rules?

So the rules would still apply, but it makes getting consent much, much easier. You can also include language that they are agreeing to receive SMS messages in the engagement letter and that will cover your ability to message recipients from day one.

As for opt-out, if you are sending conversational messages you do not need to be proactive here. It would be nice to include language that says you can opt out at any time in the engagement letter, but it is not required. The only requirement here for conversational messages is that you do in fact allow them to opt-out if they request to do so.

thank you. good info. So if I send an email for their consent and add a comment that if they wish for me to no longer communicate \ converse via text messages that they should email or text me. Will this suffice?

And would it be correct, if a person, for whom I don't have written consent from, initiates a text message to me, then this would be implied consent since they initiated it?

Yes you could send an email, but they would need to reply back to the email providing their consent. Likewise if they message you first (you are correct, consent is implied for that conversation) you can ask them if you can follow up with updates or other company news via SMS, or ask them during a phone call. All of these would be acceptable for messages that would be considered conversational or informational.

For opt-out, opt-out language is not required on conversational messages (only informational and promotional) nor do you have to proactively ask them if they want to opt-out - so as long as you are providing the ability for them to opt-out (including replying to your text with either an opt-out keyword such as STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE) you would be covered.

Note for informational (eg automated account updates) or promotional messages, opt-out language would be required.