Sole Proprietor 10DLC: The No-EIN Path
The 10DLC path for individuals and small businesses without an EIN. Cheap and OTP-verified, but hard-capped at one campaign, one or two numbers, 1,000 messages/day on T-Mobile, and 15 messages/minute on AT&T.
The Sole Proprietor path exists for one specific situation: you want to text from a local number but you don’t have an EIN . Instead of business vetting, TCR verifies an individual by sending a one-time passcode (OTP) to their mobile phone. It’s the cheapest way onto 10DLC — and the most limited.
Eligibility
You qualify only if both are true:
- You have a US or Canadian address.
- You have no business Tax ID (EIN).
There are also anti-abuse limits on how widely one identity can be reused:
- A single mobile number can validate at most 3 sole-prop brands.
- A single email or address can validate at most 10 brands.
The 24-hour OTP deadline
When you submit a sole-prop brand, TCR texts a one-time passcode to the individual’s phone to confirm identity. You must enter that OTP within 24 hours or the registration fails and you start over.
The limits you’re signing up for
Sole Proprietor trades vetting for hard caps. There is no Trust Score — throughput is fixed at the bottom tier regardless of anything you do.
| Constraint | Limit |
|---|---|
| Campaigns | 1 campaign per brand |
| Phone numbers | 1 number per campaign (≤2 registered numbers per entity) |
| Trust Score | None — fixed low throughput |
| T-Mobile | 1,000 messages/day (shared brand cap) |
| AT&T | 15 messages/minute (Class W) |
| Verizon | Per-number content-filtered throughput, same as any number |
These are not raisable. You cannot vet your way up, add campaigns, or pile on numbers — the path is designed for genuinely low volume.
Costs
Sole Proprietor is the cheapest entry point. Notably, it skips the $50 T-Mobile campaign activation fee that Standard campaigns pay.
Full cost detail is on the fees page. Note that Sole Proprietorships cannot be migrated between CSPs.
Sole Proprietor vs Low-Volume Standard
If you have an EIN, the comparison is really Sole Proprietor (no — you can’t use it) versus Low-Volume Standard. But many small operators ask whether to get an EIN just to escape the sole-prop caps. The trade-off:
| Sole Proprietor | Low-Volume Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| EIN required | No | Yes |
| Identity check | SMS OTP | Business record verification |
| Trust Score | None | Yes (skips automatic secondary vet) |
| Campaigns | 1 | Multiple |
| Numbers | 1–2 | Multiple per campaign |
| T-Mobile cap | 1,000/day | Tiered by Trust Score (2,000–200,000/day) |
| AT&T | 15 msg/min | Higher class by Trust Score |
| Best for | A single low-volume use case from an individual | A small business that has (or will get) an EIN and may grow |
Choose Sole Proprietor when: you’re an individual or a one-person operation, you have exactly one messaging use case, your volume is genuinely under ~1,000/day to T-Mobile, and you don’t have an EIN.
Choose Low-Volume Standard instead when: you already have an EIN, or you expect to need more than one campaign, more than a couple of numbers, or more than 1,000 messages/day. Getting an EIN is free and fast from the IRS — if growth is plausible, it’s usually worth doing up front rather than rebuilding later (and remember, sole-prop brands can’t be migrated).
Related: Brand registration · Trust Score and throughput · Fees