The support phone must reach the business

The requirementstatement

The brand support number must route to the business and be answerable during business hours.

Severityseverity: HighHIGHRejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
When it bitesphase: Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
What is checkedobject: brand.phone
Where it liveslayer: BrandBRAND
How Ekas settles itdetectability: External recordEXTERNAL_DATA; The fact that settles it lives in a register we cannot query, such as the IRS file, a postal database, or another provider’s tenant. Reported as a warning with the evidence to check, not as a pass.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Wait on someone elseTERMINAL_EXTERNAL; Needs an external system or a waiting period, such as IRS propagation, a vetting result, or a carrier queue.
Who requires itauthorities: KlaviyoTelnyx
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies to every 10DLC registration.

Why this rule existsrationale

Reviewers call it. That is the whole check: a number that rings out, reaches a personal voicemail, or lands on a disconnected line tells them the business either does not exist or cannot be contacted, and both readings end the same way. Businesses supply the owner's mobile or a line that was reassigned during an office move, and never learn that the number was the finding.

How to fix itremediation

Use the number published on the business website, and make sure it is answered — by a person or by a greeting that names the business — during ordinary business hours. Done when calling it yourself from an unknown number reaches the business by name.

Check this yourselfattestation

No tool can settle this one for you. Here is the check, and what wrong looks like.

When you call this number from a phone the business does not recognise, during business hours, does a person or a greeting name the business?

1Do exactly what the reviewer will do: dial it yourself, in business hours, from an unknown number, and listen to what a stranger hears.
2Use the number published on the business website, not the owner's mobile — and check it was not reassigned during an office move.

What wrong looks like: It rings out, or reaches a personal voicemail with no business name. The reviewer reads that as a business that either does not exist or cannot be contacted, and never tells you the number was the finding.

Notesnotes

We cannot dial it. What the user has to do is exactly what the reviewer will: call the number from a phone the business does not recognise, in business hours, and listen to what a stranger hears.

Rules you will hit next

4 other rules read brand.phone. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.

BRD-072Sole proprietor mobile number has a reuse limitBlockingBLOCKING BRD-102A brand support phone number is requiredBlockingBLOCKING BRD-103The support phone must be in E.164BlockingBLOCKING BRD-106The business phone should be findable in a web searchMediumMEDIUM BRD-006Submit every name line above the address on a multi-line IRS recordHighHIGH BRD-007TCR takes only the first line of the IRS-registered nameHighHIGH

All brand rules

BRD-104 is one of 196 brand rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.