# SMS Sender Registration (/docs/overview/sms-sender-registration)

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.tandemcx.ai/llms.txt). Any page on this site can be fetched as Markdown by appending `.md` to its URL.

<Callout type="info">
    **This page is being rolled out, one organization at a time.** Until it reaches yours, the
    **Enable SMS** action described below does not appear on a phone number's sidebar.
</Callout>

US carriers block SMS from a number they don't recognize. Before a number can send SMS, it has to
be registered with carriers through one of two paths, and which path applies depends on the
number:

- **Toll-free numbers** (NPA 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, or 888) go through **toll-free
  verification (TFV)**, covered on this page.
- **Local (10-digit) numbers** register through a different process, 10DLC campaign
  registration, which isn't available in Tandem yet. A local number's sidebar shows a note that
  10DLC registration is coming rather than an Enable SMS action.

Until a number is registered, its SMS status is **Pending**, and workflows can't send from it —
the Send SMS node's From Number list only offers numbers whose SMS status is **Enabled**.

## Submitting a toll-free number

Open **Admin → Phone Numbers**, click a toll-free number's row, and find **Enable SMS** under its
**SMS** status in the sidebar. This opens a form starting with a list of your organization's
toll-free numbers that aren't already enabled or already submitted — pick up to 10 to register
together under the same business information in one submission (Bandwidth's own limit per
submission). The number whose sidebar you opened the form from is preselected; add others from
the list if you're registering several at once.

Below that, the form asks for:

- Your business's legal name, DBA (if different), and entity type
- For every entity type except sole proprietor, your business registration: the number (an EIN,
  for example), its type, and the three-letter code of the country that issued it (USA for an
  EIN). A sole proprietor isn't asked for these.
- Your business address and website
- A business contact: name, email, and phone number
- The use case these messages are for, picked from the carrier's list (Appointments, 2FA,
  Billing, and so on), a short summary, and one representative message
- Your estimated monthly message volume, at least 10
- How customers opt in to receive these messages, with proof: drag and drop a screenshot (PNG,
  JPEG, or WebP, up to 5 MB) or paste a URL to one you already host
- Your privacy policy and terms of service URLs, if published

**After your first submission, this information prefills the next one.** Tandem remembers the
business profile a submission used, so registering another toll-free number later starts from
what you entered last time instead of a blank form — change anything that's out of date before
submitting.

Submit sends this to the carrier for review; each number's SMS status moves from **Pending** to
either **Enabled** or **Disabled** once the carrier decides, independently of the others in the
same submission. Tandem checks for a decision on its own — there's nothing to refresh by hand.

If the carrier refuses the submission outright, the form shows the carrier's reason, naming the
field to fix where it can, and nothing is submitted.

## If a submission is denied

A denied number's SMS status shows **Disabled**, and its sidebar shows the carrier's reason
alongside a **Resubmit** action. Resubmit reopens the form with that submission's answers, so you
can correct what the carrier flagged and send it again without retyping everything. It sends only
the submission's denied numbers; any that were verified or are still pending stay as they are.
While a denial can still be resubmitted, Resubmit is its only way forward, so the number isn't
offered in a new submission's number picker.

The carrier accepts a resubmission within 7 days of its decision; the sidebar shows when that
window ends. For some denials it accepts none at all. Once the window has closed, or for a denial
the carrier won't take back, the sidebar offers **Submit again** instead. That opens a new
submission for the number, prefilled with your saved business information, and the number appears
in the new submission's picker. Submitting withdraws the old denial and starts a fresh carrier
review.

## Next steps

- [Toll-free verification API](/docs/api/routing/toll-free-verification/listTfvRequests) —
  submit, list, resubmit, and refresh toll-free verification requests from the API instead of the
  sidebar, including
  [reading](/docs/api/routing/toll-free-verification/getTfvProfile) and
  [saving](/docs/api/routing/toll-free-verification/saveTfvProfile) the saved business profile
  directly.
- [Admin](/docs/overview/admin) — the rest of the organization-wide settings.
