Short Code Provisioning

To understand short code provisioning, we first need to understand short codes and their function. A short code is a five to six-digit number used by companies to communicate to their customers via text message. When a company or brand wants to initiate a text marketing campaign the first step is to acquire a short code. This usually means that they will lease a short code and gain access to use this number to reach their customers.

At this point, the code is not actually connected to any of the wireless carriers yet. To activate the short code, you must be approved by the wireless carriers you wish to send messages through. The process of leasing the short code, filling out the application and providing information about the campaigns that will be sent using this short code is called Short Code Provisioning.

Getting Approval From the Carriers

The majority of brands and organizations provisioning a new short code will rely on an application provider, like CellForce to handle this process for them. This is because an application provider often has a greater understanding of the Campaign Brief Application process and can get your code provisioned quickly with greater ease. Our provisioning time from inception to client contact to live code is 5 weeks.

There are a few options when leasing a short code depending on the style of code you want. There are options to lease a 5-6 digit ‘vanity code’ which would indicate a specialized set of numbers of your choosing, or you can lease a random 5 digit code.

The next step is to file a Short Code Application. This is a step that is typically handled by your application provider and an aggregator. Aggregators are the liaison between the application provider like CellForce and the carriers.

Once the wireless carriers have approved your Campaign Brief Application, they'll activate the new short code on their wireless network. The wireless carriers will initiate short code testing on the code, which includes actually interacting with the short code via text message. Once your short code is approved by the carriers you are then able to send and receive text to users.

As a client of CellForce, we, your application provider will expertly guide you through the entire process and manage your short code from leasing to dealing with audits and anything in between.