Insights

Somos Launches the Texting and Smart Services (TSS) Registry

Jul 22, 2015

Today marks the official launch of the Texting and Smart Services (TSS) Registry. Designed to serve as the centralized routing database for all multimedia services associated with Toll-Free Numbers, the TSS Registry is the first formal industry-wide system to support the growing demand for the text enablement of Toll-Free Numbers.  

It’s a fact that 80% of mobile users in America choose texting as a primary means of communication, and that six in 10 prefer this method when it comes time to contact customer service. As businesses look to engage customers in a manner that they find convenient, text enabled Toll-Free Numbers have emerged as a primary tool.

In time, this will be expanded to include other multimedia services, all of which can be supported by the TSS Registry. As of today, the registry starts by supporting texting.

Operating independently from the SMS/800 voice platform, the TSS Registry will interact with it to provide confirmation that Toll-Free Numbers are working before the system accepts a multimedia service enablement request.  

A TSS Service Registrar can provision Toll-Free Numbers into the TSS Registry on behalf of Toll-Free subscribers under the direction of a Letter of Agency (LOA). Through a series of validations, the TSS Registry will ensure that the integrity of the Toll-Free Number is maintained and then distribute text routing information to key message-routing database providers, who in turn serve mobile-network operators for message routing.

Click here to find out more about how to become a TSS Registry Service Registrar.

For a Responsible Organization (Resp Org), notifications will be provided when new multimedia service enablement requests are made, with the opportunity to review the request.  There is no cost to Resp Orgs for their participation.

The TSS Registry enables the expansion of Toll-Free voice services to include text communication. And that will help everyone make better connections all around.