At Carrick Health, we understand the importance of effective communication with your audience. To facilitate this, we offer a variety of phone number options for sending messages. This document outlines the three types of phone numbers available, their specific use cases, and the registration requirements for each.

We provide three types of phone numbers to meet your messaging needs:

• Local Area Code

• Verified Toll-Free

• Short Code

The Local Area Code is the default option for Carrick Health. During your onboarding process, you can select a standard 10-digit local number, allowing you to start texting your audience immediately. Additionally, we offer the option to bring your own number to Carrick, enabling you to utilize our texting capabilities while keeping your existing phone services intact.

Local area code numbers are suitable for both small and large audiences across various use cases. If your goal is to message a large group of people quickly, we recommend considering either a verified toll-free number or a short code.

To initiate the use of a local area code number, we must register your business to ensure that mobile carriers do not flag your messages as spam. This registration is a requirement under the new A2P 10DLC rules established by US mobile carriers. For more information, please refer to the article on A2P 10DLC Registration.

We recommend local area code numbers for smaller audiences with low texting volumes. Typical use cases include filling shifts with employees or managing order pickups for restaurants, where daily messaging remains under 250 outbound messages. For larger audiences or when sending broadcasts to 250 or more recipients, we suggest opting for a verified toll-free number.

Verified toll-free numbers provide a higher message throughput of 3 SMS segments per second, compared to the 1 SMS segment per second offered by local phone numbers. These numbers can send messages to both the US and Canada, whereas short codes are limited to their respective countries. For Canadian companies, verified toll-free numbers are the optimal choice for sending messages, as they significantly reduce the risk of spam due to carrier verification. For US companies, A2P 10DLC allows for verified traffic on traditional 10-digit numbers.

It is essential to note that all toll-free messaging must be verified to prevent spam filtering and blocked messages. To register for a toll-free number, please provide the information outlined in the article on Toll Free Verification.

Short code numbers are limited to sending SMS within their own country and do not support voice calling capabilities. However, they can send messages to much larger audiences at a rate of 100 SMS segments per second. If you are interested in acquiring a short code number, we encourage you to contact our sales team for further assistance.