A national campaign needs a per-state matrix, evaluated against the strictest rule

The requirementstatement

A per-state matrix of quiet hours, frequency caps, consent standards and retention windows must be maintained, and every national campaign evaluated against the most restrictive rule that applies to it.

Severityseverity: HighHIGHRejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
When it bitesphase: After you are livepostFalls due once you are sending: STOP handling, quiet hours, suppression, record retention.
What is checkedobject: per-state rule matrix
Where it liveslayer: OperationalOPERATIONAL
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: state lawFCC
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies to every 10DLC registration.

Why this rule existsrationale

This is the umbrella the individual state rows hang from, and without it each one is checked in isolation by whoever remembered it. A national send silently violates the narrowest state on every axis at once — window, cap, consent standard — and no single rule surfaces that, because each of them is satisfied for most recipients.

How to fix itremediation

Hold one table, state by state, of the window, the cap, the consent standard and the retention floor, and either apply per-state or take the strictest row as the national default. Review it against legislative changes at least annually. Done when a single table answers "may we send this, there, now".

Common mistakespitfalls

Taking the strictest row nationally is a legitimate and much cheaper answer — the cost is a narrower sending window, not a narrower audience.

Check this yourselfattestation

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

Does a single table answer "may we send this, there, now" — and when was it last reviewed against new legislation?

1Hold one table, state by state, of the window, the frequency cap, the consent standard and the retention floor.
2Either apply per-state or take the strictest row as the national default — the cost of the second is a narrower sending window, not a narrower audience.
3Name the source you trust and the review cadence. State mini-TCPAs are actively being enacted.

What wrong looks like: Each state row is checked in isolation by whoever remembered it, so a national send violates the narrowest state on every axis at once and no single rule surfaces it.

Notesnotes

A legal research artefact rather than a system, and it goes stale: state mini-TCPAs are actively being enacted. What the user has to own is the review cadence and the source they trust for it, because the matrix is only as current as its last update.

Rules you will hit next

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

OPS-034A programme in another language still owes the English keywordHighHIGH OPS-035The mandatory keywords must work over MMS tooHighHIGH OPS-044Suppression is brand-wide, not per numberHighHIGH OPS-047A state may give you less time than the federal limitHighHIGH OPS-052Silence after a scope question revokes everythingHighHIGH OPS-053A STOP answering a scope question must not be answered with anotherHighHIGH

All operational rules

OPS-100 is one of 139 operational rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.