Products · Toll-Free
Toll-free is the quickest, cheapest way onto US messaging, and a verified number sends at high throughput with no per-brand daily cap. Unverified, it sends nothing, so Ekas clears you on the first submission.
Ekas checks your verification the way the aggregator will, before you submit.
1-800-NORTHWIND
Toll-free · SMS + MMS
Unverified. Carriers block this number outright.
Ekas gets your number verified on the first submission.
One free verification, no brand or campaign to register, and throughput a local number can’t match. Unverified, though, the number sends nothing.
Blocked
Unverified and pending toll-free numbers can’t send. Carriers pass only Verified.
Carriers, since Nov 2023
$0
to verify a toll-free number, against the fee stack on 10DLC and RCS.
Every major provider
150 MPS
a verified toll-free number can scale to, with no per-brand daily cap.
Provider high-throughput
~40M
toll-free numbers are in use, and Somos expects about half to text-enable.
Somos
Somos text-enables the number and routes it. A separate toll-free aggregator reviews your opt-in and use case and decides whether carriers deliver. Keeping those two apart is the thing most write-ups get wrong.
You, or your customer
The company behind the number. It text-enables one toll-free number and files a single verification. There’s no brand object and no campaign object to register.
CPaaS or RespOrg
Twilio, Bandwidth, Telnyx, Sinch and the rest. They text-enable the number and submit your verification. Some are their own RespOrgs and own the numbers directly.
Text-enablement + routing
The neutral registry that turns a voice number into a messaging one and routes it to the carriers. It handles activation and routing, not opt-in or use-case review.
The review that matters
Reviews your identity, consent and content by hand, then tags the number’s status with the carriers. This is the review that decides whether you deliver. There is no TCR here.
They enforce it
AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon set the rules and block anything that isn’t Verified.
Nationwide reach
A verified toll-free number reaches any US mobile at high throughput, with no per-brand daily cap to plan around.
Toll-free folds the whole process into three steps and one form. The manual review is where the weeks and the rejections pile up.
Step 1
Activate a toll-free number for messaging through the Somos registry. This turns a voice number into an SMS and MMS channel and sets up its routing.
What it takes
Where it fails
Messages route nowhere if the number’s RespOrg authorization for texting isn’t in place first.
Step 2
Submit one verification for the number: who you are, what you’ll send, and proof that people opted in. One form, no brand or campaign objects.
What it takes
Where it fails
A missing or vague opt-in proof is the number-one rejection. The consent has to be visible at the point where you collect it.
Step 3
The toll-free aggregator reviews your identity, consent and content by hand, and the carriers tag the number Verified. Until that lands, it can’t send.
What it takes
Where it fails
Around fifty documented rejection reasons, most about opt-in and use-case match. A rejection leaves you about seven days to fix it and resubmit.
Toll-free skips every registration layer 10DLC and RCS pile on. The opt-in and use-case review stays, held to the same CTIA standard, with a higher bar on proof.
The tradeoff
Lighter process comes with a deliverability ceiling. Verified toll-free gets filtered more than a high-trust 10DLC campaign, and there’s no trust-score lever to climb toward.
Three levers decide it: the identity you want (national, local, or branded), how much registration you’re willing to do, and how much throughput you need.
Skip toll-free when you need a local, area-code presence, a branded experience with your logo and checkmark, or a one-to-one texting feel. A toll-free prefix reads as a national line.
Around fifty documented rejection reasons, and they cluster. Opt-in proof is the one that sinks the most submissions.
No public URL or screenshot showing the consent at the point of collection. The top rejection, by a wide margin.
Consent collected for one thing, messages sent for another. A single opt-in can’t cover mismatched use cases.
The business name doesn’t match the website or legal records, or the contact isn’t a company representative.
No accessible privacy policy, or one that never says phone numbers aren’t shared with third parties.
Samples missing the required disclosures, a HELP reply that isn’t compliant, or link shorteners like bit.ly.
SHAFT and high-risk categories, or political traffic sent without a Campaign Verify token.
Ekas reviews the verification the way the aggregator will, then hands you the fix for what’s weak, before you submit.
Ekas reviews your identity, opt-in, sample messages and policy pages up front, and flags what a reviewer would reject.
The rejection that sinks most submissions. Ekas confirms your consent is visible and matches the use case before it goes in.
Name, website and contact lined up so the identity check passes on the first read, not the third.
You get the exact change to make, not a 30507 error code a week into the review.
If you follow the fixes and still get rejected, it doesn’t count against your quota, and Ekas covers the work.
Keep Twilio, Bandwidth, Telnyx or Sinch. Ekas sits on top as the compliance layer above whoever you send with.
Works with your provider
Keep sending the way you do today. Ekas sits on top as the compliance layer above whoever carries your toll-free traffic.
Toll-free, 10DLC and RCS register in different ways, and Ekas handles each one on its own terms. The other two are here.
Lower overhead, yes. One free verification, with no brand, campaign, trust score, or carrier vetting layer. The opt-in and use-case review still runs against the same CTIA standard, and the proof-of-consent bar is higher than 10DLC’s.
No. Toll-free skips the 10DLC brand and campaign objects entirely. You file one verification per number. That’s the main reason it’s faster and cheaper to stand up.
Nothing. Carriers have blocked unverified toll-free since November 2023, and pending numbers since January 2024. Verification is a hard gate now. You verify, or you don’t send.
A verified toll-free number starts around 3 messages a second and can be raised past 150, near short-code class, with no per-brand daily cap. 10DLC is capped at 2,000 to 200,000 a day by trust score.
The verification itself is free at every major provider. You pay for the number (around $2 a month) and per-message rates, which run about the same as a local 10DLC number. Ekas’s own plan is on the pricing page.
Yes. Keep your provider. Ekas checks and fixes the verification before it’s submitted. We work with Twilio, Bandwidth, Telnyx, Sinch, Vonage, and Plivo.
Still have questions? Talk to us
Tell us how you send today, and we’ll show you what a reviewer would reject and how Ekas fixes it before you submit.
See the full plan on pricing.