New T-Mobile Rules – More Work with Less Refunds

From what we hear T-Mobile will soon be transition to their new platform called ‘3PG’ and while this sounds similar to a mobile video format (.3pg), I assure that that it’s not.  We don’t know much about the new platform, but we do know what they are starting to require.  As we move forward in the SMS marketing industry, it’s becoming more and more regulated from both the carriers and the marketing companies initiating the campaigns.

Within this industry, if a end user opts into a program and then turns around to the carrier and complains that they didn’t mean to opt-into a campaign, the carrier usually sides with the end user and the campaign provider has to provide a refund.  This is why the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) and carrier guideline state that a user must double opt-in to any premium campaign.  This ensures that the end user really wants to enter into a Premium SMS messaging campaign (PSMS).  However, as we can attest to, the double opt-in PSMS campaigns are not foolproof either – many end users still receive undeserved refunds.

This brings us to T-Mobiles new rules.  Now these rules mean more work for us, our clients, and the gateway, but at the end of the day it’s totally and completely worth it.  T-Mobile is asking for campaigns that are running standard rate subscription services, premium one-off services, and premium subscription services to pass along the opt-in details along in their parameter string to show which message id (SMSID) the user initially opted-into the program.  Thus, when a T-Mobile customer complains, the T-Mobile customer service representative can provide the end user with the date, time, and message of when they opted in.  This means more work for us at the start, but less refunds down the line.  Less refund as we know equals more revenue.  So we say, good for you T-Mobile and good luck getting everyone to comply, we know we’re trying.