“Why does it take so long to get a short code approved?” It’s the million dollar question we’re asked day after day, and the truthful answer is “it depends.” It depend on the type of service being applied for, as well on the individual Carrier. There is no uniform system or guidelines in place from Carrier to Carrier which is quite unfortunate.
Delays in certification also arise when Carriers all of a sudden make up new requirements and last minute unreasonable requests.
Here are two recent occurrences that had us running in circles, throwing up our hands in utter disbelief and clinching our fists in a solemn swear that at least on a personal level we will never become users of this one particular Carrier. I won’t mention their name, but they are 1 of the top 4 in the U.S. For ease of reading we’ll just call them Queen Bee Mobile (QBM).
Pre-Emptive Audits: A team member came to me the other day to tell me about an audit we received from QBM . The audit was scolding us for not having a reply message when the auditor had text the keyword STOP to one of our managed short codes. This is a concern, and I asked the team member why he was talking to me about the audit and not resolving the audit! We are MMA members, strict on consumer compliance and this is a serious issue. The team member calmly said to me “The code isn’t provisioned, which means we have no technical connection to QBM which means that we’re incapable of receiving the STOP request and incapable of sending a text message to QBM users!” Yes, we were audited on a code that was still undergoing the strenuous process of certification! If you’re wondering how to solve pre-emptive audits give us a shout and we’ll fill you in. When I tell you the ends to which we had to travel to get this resolved you may want to stop doing mobile! (But don’t, it’s still a great space.)
Off-the-Cuff Requirements: Another recent client project required we apply for standard rate binary content, in this instance it was a wallpaper. After not hearing from QBM for 3 months, we receive an email with an Excel matrix of all QBM handsets, and a demand that we test the wallpaper download on each handset, tell QBM if it passed or failed, and provide the phone number to each of those handsets! Mind you, this requirement was not, and is still not documented. When we asked where this rule came from and the reasoning behind it we were told that the rule was to enhance user experience. What?! How exactly would this requirement meet that goal? In order to meet this goal all call to actions, including TV, Radio, Online, etc would need to list each and every handset that are compatible. This is obviously not realistic and fails on far too many levels for me to bore you with.
I mean, can you imagine the print, radio and television nightmare! And, where was this ‘rule’ 3 months ago when we applied for the code! Here’s the kicker, I told my Aggregator that my client that was going to do a wallpaper campaign is gone, because the process with QBM took too long. Thus, I didn’t want certification for binary download, just a standard rate SMS service which was also applied for at the same time. Simple right? Wrong! In order to do that QBM would need a brand new application just for the SMS alert service, they can’t (i.e. won’t) certify 1 service if the application asked for 2 – oh, and the cherry on top, I have to pay an additional application fee.
Alas, all of our frustration, agony and diatribes are a waste since Carriers control their backyards and we’re the ones that are asking permission to play in them. It’s the ultimate example of the “golden rule” – he who has the gold makes all the rules.
When these situations come up and we’re deflated the one thing we remind ourselves is that even though mobile can be frustrating when dealing with the Carrier/bureaucratic side of it, the client side is a fabulous eco-system the brings true value to consumers, quantifiable return on investment to brands, and pushes all of us to continue innovation. I truly hope Carriers realize this and focus more on supporting us rather than waking up on the wrong side of the bed and pulling random rules out of their . . .thin air 