UPDATE: New Compliance Changes With CTIA!!

PLEASE READ THIS. IMPORTANT INFORMATION INCLUDED.

It has come to our attention that CTIA (http://www.ctia.org) is going to start performing large scale compliance audits on short codes.

In order to prepare for this, we must take the following precautionary measures:

1. You must be absolutely sure that all your campaigns are in full compliance. This applies especially to keywords and campaigns displayed on yours or your customers’ web sites, as well as on signs, printed materials, etc.

2. We have performed preliminary audits on several white label sites and have noticed that in some cases, the default opt-out instructions have been removed or replaced with a non-compliant message. The current approved opt-out message is: “TXT Stop to end. Help: Rply HELP. Msg & data rates may apply. 3 msgs/wk”.

3. Your site has to be in full compliance by 7/25/2011. At that point, we will start to perform audits on sites which are displaying our short codes 41513, 94932, 49798, 59769, 32020, 75880, 63975, 54500. The CTIA compliance rules can be found on http://www.anchormobile.net/CITA.pdf. In many cases, it may be easier to completely remove the short code and keywords from your site rather than make all the changes required by the CTIA and carriers. Failure to comply can result in your account being suspended or campaigns being deleted.

4. Effective immediately, the opt-out instructions can no longer be removed from keyword functions which add users to groups.

5. It is your responsibility to verify that all your customers’ campaigns are in compliance. Non-compliant campaigns may be subject to immediate termination. If you need to see a sample of a site in full carrier compliance, please visit: http://www.anchormobile.net.

PLEASE REPLY TO THIS EMAIL: If you have received this message, please reply in agreement with these new terms.

Below was received from CTAI as to what platform changes are being implemented:

Dear Short Code Marketers:

In recent months, CTAI has made significant progress implementing and consolidating an industry monitoring program capable of assessing text messaging campaigns (short code campaigns) compliance with established consumer best practices. The monitoring initiative includes inspection of both advertising creative used to encourage consumer opt-in as well as inspection of text message flows over the carrier networks documenting the interaction between campaigns and consumers. With these important pieces now in place, we are publishing the playbook used to guide the monitoring process along with the timeline of next steps leading to the launch of monitoring enforcement August 1, 2011.

Over the coming month, aggregators and content providers will receive login credentials to access monitoring audit reports as they are published. The attached playbook details the process parties will follow in responding to audit and maintaining compliance with consumer best practices. A significant piece of the audit process includes a comparison between campaign details submitted to the registry when leasing codes with details obtained in the open environment including the advertising promoting audits and the text flow details. ANY DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN CAMPAIGN DETAILS FOUND IN THE REGISTRY AND THOSE OBTAINED IN THE OPEN ENVIRONMENT WILL BE VIEWED AS SEVERITY 1 INFRACTIONS AND MAY RESULT IN YOUR REGISTRY ACCOUNT BEING SUSPENDED. Suspended accounts will be unable to add new campaigns to active codes, make changes to existing campaigns running on active codes, or lease new codes. Please take the time now, before enforcement begins, to make corrections to any information in the registry (www.USShortCodes.com) that is out of date or inaccurate.

Listed below is a complete timeline outlining the various milestones of this implementation, leading up to the start of enforcement provisions, which are set to begin, August 1, 2011. Please be advised that aggregators received this information several weeks ago in preparation for this launch and may be able to provide assistance with specific questions you may have. In the coming days, additional resources will be provided to assist you and your teams as you become more familiar with the process.

We express our sincere thanks to all providing critical feedback to help us reach this milestone. It is our goal to provide a very robust monitoring solution capable of mitigating noncompliance of short code based mobile campaigns with the industry’s consumer best practices developed by the MMA and protect consumers. We believe that this step is critical to reaching the broader objective of expanding and stabilizing the marketplace, making it a long-term valuable investment to external organizations. If you have any questions related to these documents, please feel free to contact me at your convenience. Thank you again for your continued interest and support to develop this framework.

Best regards,

Jeff

Director, Technology Programs