Carrier deactivation files must be ingested daily

The requirementstatement

The carrier deactivation feeds must be processed every day and the listed numbers removed from every opt-in list.

Severityseverity: BlockingBLOCKINGBreaking this rule gets the submission rejected. There is no partial credit.
When it bitesphase: After you are livepostFalls due once you are sending: STOP handling, quiet hours, suppression, record retention.
What is checkedobject: deactivation feed ingest job
Where it liveslayer: OperationalOPERATIONAL
How Ekas settles itdetectability: External recordEXTERNAL_DATAHuman checkHUMAN; 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. Only someone holding the document or making the call can settle it. Ekas tells you exactly what to look at.
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: T-MobileAT&TCTIAAWS
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies to every 10DLC registration.

Why this rule existsrationale

Around a hundred thousand US numbers are deactivated daily and most are reissued to somebody else within months. A consent record follows the number, so an unscrubbed list sends order details, appointment reminders or marketing to a stranger who never opted in — and delivery succeeds, so nothing in the sending metrics reveals it. The carriers publish the feeds specifically to make this preventable, which is why failing to consume them reads as negligence rather than bad luck.

How to fix itremediation

Confirm which party consumes the feeds — most CPaaS platforms offer it, several charge for it, and a few leave it entirely to the sender — then run the ingest daily and log each run with its timestamp. Done when a number deactivated on Monday is off your list on Tuesday.

A compliant exampleexample

Daily 06:00: pull the T-Mobile and AT&T deactivation files, suppress the listed MDNs, log run_at and record count.

Common mistakespitfalls

Delivery failures are not a substitute. A reassigned number delivers perfectly — to the wrong person — so bounce handling never finds these.

Check this yourselfattestation

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

Is a number deactivated on Monday off your list on Tuesday — and who is running that ingest?

1Establish which party consumes the carrier deactivation feeds: most CPaaS platforms offer it, several charge for it, and a few leave it entirely to the sender.
2Confirm it is enabled on your account, runs daily, and logs each run with a timestamp.
3Check the retention window on the report objects — several platforms delete them after a few days, so a missed run cannot be replayed.

What wrong looks like: Around a hundred thousand US numbers are deactivated daily and most are reissued within months. Delivery to a reassigned number succeeds perfectly — to a stranger — so bounce handling never finds these.

Notesnotes

Absorbs OPS-084 and OPS-086, the same daily ingest against a second carrier feed and against a platform-mediated deactivation report. The feeds are carrier data we cannot see. What the user has to establish is whether their provider ingests them on their behalf, whether it is enabled on their account, and what the retention window on those report objects is — several platforms delete them after a few days, so a missed run cannot be replayed. OPS-085 is the approval-side twin: whether the programme describes doing this at all.

Rules you will hit next

Other operational rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.

OPS-026The universal opt-out keyword set must be declaredBlockingBLOCKING OPS-027Opt-out keyword handling must be declared, not assumedBlockingBLOCKING OPS-029A revocation must survive punctuation, case and surrounding wordsBlockingBLOCKING OPS-031A plainly-worded opt-out counts even with no keyword in itBlockingBLOCKING OPS-033STOP must never come back as an errorBlockingBLOCKING OPS-037On a shared address, STOP must stop everythingBlockingBLOCKING

All operational rules

OPS-083 is one of 139 operational rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.