A2P 10DLC for Solar Installers
The short answer
For carrier SMS, yes. Any solar company texting from a 10-digit number has to register a brand and a campaign with The Campaign Registry, and unregistered traffic has been blocked outright since February 1, 2025. iMessage is a different channel. It runs over Apple's servers instead of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, so there's no A2P registration required, no campaign vetting queue, and no per-message carrier surcharge.
Key takeaways
- Registry fees are small; approval and deliverability cost real money.
- Solar pipelines sit on carriers' prohibited list.
- Approval isn't delivery. Carriers rescore your traffic on a 1% opt-out threshold: send 1,000 texts, collect 10 STOPs, get throttled.
- Blue Reacher connects natively to your CRM with no A2P registration required.
- Yes. TCPA governs consent, not the channel.
Time to first message
What A2P 10DLC actually costs a solar company in 2026
Registry fees are small; approval and deliverability cost real money. Here's the current published stack from The Campaign Registry, BCM One, and HighLevel.
- Run the math: a 12-rep operation at 60,000 segments/month pays roughly $180 carrier surcharge plus $10 campaign fee. Under $250/month, on paper. But six weeks of approval delays during spring install season is a quarter you lose.
Brand registration
- Current cost
- $4.50 one-time
- Notes
- The Campaign Registry raised it from $4.00 in August 2025
Standard brand vetting
- Current cost
- $41.50
- Notes
- Enhanced vetting runs $101.50; an appeal costs $11.00
Campaign registration
- Current cost
- $24.50 to $71.91
- Notes
- Low Volume Standard to High Volume Standard; each extra campaign adds $15.00
Monthly campaign fee
- Current cost
- $10.00 standard, $30.00 Agents and Franchises
- Notes
- Three-month minimum commitment; dealer networks usually land in the $30 tier
Carrier surcharge per SMS segment
- Current cost
- $0.0035 AT&T, $0.0045 T-Mobile, $0.0045 Verizon
- Notes
- $0.005 on US Cellular; rates current as of August 1, 2025
MMS surcharge
- Current cost
- $0.0090 AT&T, $0.0100 T-Mobile and US Cellular
- Notes
- Roof photos and proposal snippets cost more to send
T-Mobile content violation
- Current cost
- Up to $10,000
- Notes
- Third offense; long code evasion is fined $1,000 per incident
Why do solar campaigns get rejected so often?
Solar pipelines sit on carriers' prohibited list. Lead generation under Third-Party Services is flatly prohibited, and campaigns on purchased lists get blocked. Solar's decade-long dependence on aggregator leads means the standard use case walks into vetting already flagged.
- The dealer and franchise structure makes it worse. A brand with 40 independent reps sharing one entity trips the rule against multiple brands on one number, which carriers call number-sharing abuse.
- Aged lead reactivation, where the homeowner opted in on a comparison site two years ago and has never heard your company's name
- Canvassing follow-up texts with no traceable opt-in record
- Utility rate increase blasts, which read as unsolicited promotional content to a reviewer with no matching opt-in language
- Vague use case descriptions like "customer updates" or "appointment reminders" that don't match what your website actually collects
- A campaign description that references solar quotes while the registered brand's website shows roofing, HVAC, or a holding company name
What carrier filtering does after you're approved
Approval isn't delivery. Carriers rescore your traffic on a 1% opt-out threshold: send 1,000 texts, collect 10 STOPs, get throttled. Solar hits that faster than any vertical because consumers see the whole category as spam.
- Failure is silent. You get delivered status, the message never lands, and your rep logs a no-response on an interested lead. Your team can't tell cold leads from filtered messages, so you burn pipeline on ghosts.
Everything above describes the mechanism. The Blue Funnel Map marks the stages where your own funnel is losing replies, and you keep the map whether or not you buy.
Map this against your funnelBooking solar appointments with no A2P registration required
Blue Reacher connects natively to your CRM with no A2P registration required. Go live the day your line starts, not six weeks after filing.
- Send photos, proposals, and voice memos without MMS surcharges. Typing indicators and read receipts show when they've opened your proposal. Availability checking tells you which contacts get blue-bubble messages.
- Pricing: $249/line/mo or $1,949/yr (~$162.50/mo), unlimited iMessages (50 opted-in / 30 cold new contacts/day). Activation ($449) waived on annual. Native on GoHighLevel, HubSpot, Close, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Follow Up Boss, Zapier, Make, n8n.
Does TCPA still apply if you text over iMessage?
Does TCPA still apply if you text over iMessage?
Yes. TCPA governs consent, not the channel. The FCC's revocation order (April 2025) gives consumers 10 business days to stop; Momentum Solar paid $30M settling two TCPA class actions in 2025.
- Keep traceable opt-in records, honor every revocation inside 10 business days, respect quiet hours. Never text a list you can't trace to a form. Blue Reacher's STOP auto-detection handles the mechanical side. Run your consent process past a TCPA attorney before scaling.
Frequently asked questions
Do solar installers need A2P 10DLC registration to text leads?
For SMS from a 10-digit number, yes. Carriers have blocked unregistered 10DLC traffic since February 1, 2025, so an unregistered number reaches nobody. iMessage runs over Apple's servers rather than carrier networks, so it sits outside the registry entirely and no A2P registration is required.
Why did my solar company's 10DLC campaign get rejected?
Usually because the use case reads as third-party lead generation, which carriers prohibit, or because the opt-in description doesn't match what your website collects. Aged aggregator leads, door-knock consent with no traceable record, and generic descriptions like "customer updates" are the three most common triggers.
How much does A2P 10DLC cost a solar business per month?
Registration runs $4.50 for the brand, $41.50 for standard vetting, and $24.50 to $71.91 for the campaign bundle. After that it's $10 a month for a standard campaign, $30 for the Agents and Franchises use case, plus $0.0035 to $0.0045 per outbound SMS segment on the big three carriers.
Can solar companies text purchased or aged leads over SMS?
Carriers block campaigns built on purchased or shared lead lists, and the Eleventh Circuit's January 2025 ruling in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC reopened shared-lead consent without making it easier to prove in court. If you can't produce the form, the timestamp, and the disclosure language, don't send. This is not legal advice.
Does my lead need an iPhone to receive a Blue Reacher message?
Apple devices get the blue bubble with read receipts, typing indicators, and reactions. Everyone else still gets the message through RCS and then SMS fallback. Availability checking tells you which contacts on your list are blue-bubble reachable before you spend a send, so you can sequence your outreach around it.
Start booking solar appointments this week, not in six weeks
Skip the vetting queue and go live the day your line starts. Blue Reacher sends from your CRM with no A2P registration required; lines pace at 50 opted-in / 30 cold new contacts/day. $249/line/mo or $1,949/yr with GoHighLevel native setup, unlimited iMessages, and STOP auto-detection. Activation waived on annual billing.