A blocked number must not be automatically replaced

The requirementstatement

A number blocked by a receiving network must never be auto-replaced with a fresh one, and a permanent block code must be treated as a programme defect rather than a replacement trigger.

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: blocked-number remediation logic
Where it liveslayer: OperationalOPERATIONAL
How Ekas settles itdetectability: Post-submissionUNDETECTABLE_PRE_SUBMISSION; The subject does not exist yet at submission time: a reply window, an expiring PIN, a queue position. Reported with its deadline.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Hard stopHARD_STOP; Not remediable. Resubmitting will not help, and anyone offering to fix it is selling you a rejection.
Who requires itauthorities: T-MobileAT&TTelnyx
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies to every 10DLC registration.

Why this rule existsrationale

Automatically swapping a blocked originator is filter-evasion assistance, and it is named as such — the carrier blocked the number to stop the traffic, and replacing it defeats a control the network applied deliberately. It is almost always built with good intentions, as failover: delivery dropped, so the system routed around it, exactly as it would around a hardware fault.

How to fix itremediation

Make a permanent block stop the campaign and page a human rather than trigger failover. Investigate the content and the consent behind the traffic that earned the block before any number is provisioned.

Check this yourselfattestation

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

What does your failover configuration do when a receiving network permanently blocks a number?

1Read the failover rules in your platform and your runbook. Look specifically for a rule that treats a block the way it treats an outage — it is a sensible-looking line and it is the defect.
2Make a permanent block stop the campaign and page a human instead.
3Confirm the investigation starts with the content and the consent behind the blocked traffic, before any number is provisioned.

What wrong looks like: Delivery dropped, so the system routed around it — exactly as it would around a hardware fault. The carrier blocked that number deliberately, and swapping it is named as filter-evasion assistance.

Notesnotes

Absorbs MSG-139, which states the same rule and adds the dynamic-routing case. Logic inside the sending platform. What the user has to audit is their own failover configuration — a rule that treats a block like an outage is the specific thing to look for, and it is a sensible-looking line in a runbook.

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-138 is one of 139 operational rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.