Insights

TSS Registry: A New Education Resource on Our Website to Support a Growing Market

Apr 07, 2016

Today, communicating using a Toll-Free Number is taking on a new life and expanded role. Businesses are enhancing the value of their Toll-Free Numbers by adding text messaging to build stronger customer connections.

Texting over a Toll-Free Number is a big idea – and one that is catching on quickly. There are more than 40 million Toll-Free Numbers in use today throughout the US, Canada and the Caribbean, and we expect half of those numbers to be text enabled in the next few years. And we know that our community of Toll-Free Service Providers is eager to provide their customers with this new capability.

This major change in how businesses and consumers communicate promises exciting new opportunities to improve customer service, sales and marketing. And it presents a new service opportunity for a range of communications providers. Yet, it’s uncharted territory in a complicated ecosystem.

At Somos, we operate the Texting & Smart Services (TSS) Registry as the authoritative, centralized provisioning and routing database for all multimedia services associated with Toll-Free Numbers. As Toll-Free becomes a multimedia service, our members and their customers know that it is critical for Somos to play a central role to ensure fairness, full transparency and broad opportunity in the marketplace.

The successful adoption of texting to Toll-Free Numbers hinges on the role of the Toll-Free Service Providers, commonly known as Responsible Organizations (Resp Orgs) that reserve, assign and manage Toll-Free Numbers. So Somos has launched a new educational resource here on our Website. Through this resource, Toll-Free Service Providers, Messaging Providers, Messaging Aggregators, and other companies (collectiviely known as Service Registrars) that want to text enable Toll-Free Numbers can find everything they need. Here’s what you can find:

Overview of the messaging ecosystem

All relationships are defined, as well as the way in which the ecosystem functions to protect the integrity of Toll-Free Numbers

Validation process                                

Here, Toll-Free Service Providers can obtain detailed instructions on how to participate in the notification and validation process. Every time a Toll-Free Number is text enabled, the Toll-Free Service Provider will have the opportunity to review the request. A notification feed is sent out daily and all Toll-Free Service Providers have pre-assigned access to the TSS Registry.  There is no cost for Toll-Free Service Providers to receive and respond to TSS Registry notifications.

Becoming a Service Registrar

This step-by-step process uncovers all that Toll-Free Service Providers and other companies need to know in order to become Service Registrars.

Need-to-know information                   

An FAQ section and glossary helps define all critical terms to the Toll-Free market.

New rates for text enabled Toll-Free Numbers

These rates, which officially went into effect on April 1, 2016, are charged to Service Registrars on a monthly basis. Click here to obtain the latest rates.

If you have any questions on the TSS Registry, the validation process or our new pricing, please contact us at texting@somos.com.