US carrier registration for users using OpenPhone for personal use

How new guidelines from the major US carriers help virtual phone users

By completing the US carrier registration process, you can improve your text deliverability rates and lower the risk of carriers filtering your outbound text messages on their network. Carriers are planning to filter all unregistered messaging traffic.

As of August 31, 2024, if you're not registered you will not be able to text US phone numbers using OpenPhone.

How much does registration cost?

After you’ve submitted the form, OpenPhone passes your form details along to a third-party organization, The Campaign Registry, for review.

At a high level, you pay a $19 one-time registration fee and then a monthly messaging fee. The fees mentioned here go to The Campaign Registry and other third-party entities that help review and register your brand and campaigns.

• Carrier review: The Campaign Registry, a third-party agency chosen by the major US cell carriers, collects a one-time fee of $19 to review your application in two phases. In the first review, The Campaign Registry completes an initial screen of your application. A third-party entity then does a second manual review of the information you supply in the registration form. *
• Messaging fee: The Campaign Registry charges a $2 per month fee to help you stay in good standing with the large US cell carriers.

A $15 resubmission fee applies and goes to our carrier partner if your application is rejected. Keep reading for best practices and tips to help you complete your application.

We know these fees are surprising but if it helps, think of them as a small tax to keep fraud away from telephony and help make the use of a phone as a trusted channel of communication. 😊

100% of the fees mentioned above go to The Campaign Registry and other third-party entities to help you register and stay in good standing with the US cell carriers.

Who has access to the personal use registration form?

Only paying customers have access to US carrier registration settings. Customers who are currently on a trial need to convert to a paid account to complete this registration. Learn how to switch to a paid account here!

You'll also need to be an owner or admin of your OpenPhone workspace using OpenPhone’s web or desktop app to view and submit the US carrier registration form.

How to access the US carrier registration form

To access and complete the registration form, follow these steps:

1. Go to your OpenPhone account’s settings page, select "Trust" under "Workspace".
2. Click “Get started” to complete a short questionnaire to confirm your eligibility.

Get Started

Confirm eligibility

Personal use form

Your details

• First and last name
• Email address
• Mobile number (this must be a ten-digit cell number that contains a country code of +1)

Your address

Enter your home address. This address must be in the US or Canada. If you’re outside either country and wish to text from an OpenPhone number, you’ll need to obtain a business tax identification number.

Messaging details

The third-party entities that review your registration information also ask for you to provide the types of text messages you typically send.

For example, a college student could provide:

I'm a college student who uses texting to keep in touch with friends and family.

Message examples

In this section, you’ll need to provide at least two example texts you typically send.

Keep in mind certain subject matter is explicitly not approved to send through OpenPhone. Be sure to check out our guide to messaging categories and examples not allowed on our platform.

Assigning a phone number

Before submitting the form, you’ll be presented with a list of phone numbers in your OpenPhone workspace. You will need to select a phone number to assign messaging capabilities to. You can reassign the number you wish to use for texting to the US at any time by returning to the "Trust" settings. Any other phone numbers in your workspace will only be able to text to non-US numbers. You’ll still be able to call any number.

If each person in your family has their own OpenPhone number and wants to be able to text from each number, reach out here for further assistance.

If your workspace only has one phone number, we will automatically pre-select that phone number on your behalf.

Once selected, you can submit the form.

Reassigning a phone number

Please note 🛑

Re-assigning texting capabilities to another phone number will result in losing texting capabilities on both numbers for up to 7 days. Unfortunately, this timeline is set by the carriers and is out of our control.

If you'd still like to proceed with reassigning a number, please send us a note here and our team will be happy to help!

SMS verification

After an initial check is completed by our carrier partner (which generally takes a few minutes after you submit your form), you’ll need to respond to a one-time verification text message. It will be delivered to the mobile number provided for verification during your form submission.

Within 24 hours, respond to the text to verify. If not, you'll need to send another text by clicking “send again” from the “Trust” settings page.  

Failure to respond to verification text

If you do not verify your phone number within 30 days, you’ll see a banner on your “Trust” settings page directing you to contact our Customer Support team. Please send us a message at a2p@openphone.co

What happens after my US carrier registration is submitted?

Once completed, we will submit the form to the carriers for approval. Due to the number of people across the world registering, The Campaign Registry and other third-party entities in charge of reviewing your application currently have a backlog of requests. It may take weeks for your registration to be completed on the carriers’ end. However, we still recommend that you register as soon as possible.

There are two steps to becoming fully registered for texting to US numbers:

• Brand registration: This is an initial automated review of the information you provide in your registration.
• Campaign registration: With this step, a third-party entity completes a manual review of the messaging details that you supply in your registration.

Each of these steps can have any of the following statuses:

• Pending - waiting for approval
• Approved - registration was successful
• Rejected - registration was rejected

You can easily track the progress of your application by returning to the “Trust” settings.

If your registration for personal use is approved, your workspace and its associated phone number will be registered. This helps ensure that your messages are delivered and have a lower chance of being mislabeled as SPAM.

If your application has been rejected or failed, please verify the details submitted and submit again. For us to assist, please click “Help” on the bottom of this page!

Register with the Free Caller Registry

We also recommend registering with the Free Caller Registry to help support the reputation of your phone numbers. The information you provide on that site is used by major US wireless carriers, including T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, and AT&T.

If you add additional numbers to your workspace, you must register any new numbers with the Free Caller Registry. However, you won’t need to complete the US Carrier registration form again.

Learn more about US carrier registration

• For more frequently asked questions about registration, check out our carrier registration FAQs.
• If you’re using OpenPhone for your business, please see this article.