A2P 10DLC for Solar Installers and Solar Companies (2026 Guide)
You knock a street, a handful of homeowners tick the “text me my savings estimate” box on your tablet, and your CRM sends them all that night. If the number is not 10DLC registered, most of those texts never arrive: carriers block unregistered business texting in 2026, and solar installers get watched harder than almost any trade.
- Register the installer or dealer entity: brand ($4) and campaign (~$15 + monthly), weeks before your next canvassing push.
- Pick Mixed or Low Volume Mixed: door-knock follow-up is marketing, install updates are customer care.
- The #1 solar rejection: “free solar” / “no cost” in your samples.
What 10DLC is: a $4 brand plus a campaign, then carriers deliver
A2P means application-to-person: any text sent by software rather than typed on a handset. 10DLC is the 10-digit local number it comes from. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon require businesses texting from local numbers to register with The Campaign Registry (TCR): a Brand (your legal identity) and a Campaign (what you text, with real samples and your opt-in story).
10DLC is a carrier requirement, not a law. It sits alongside the consent rules in our TCPA guide for solar sales reps and the state-by-state SMS rules hub.
Why even registered solar numbers get extra scrutiny
Carrier spam filters are trained on complaint data, and years of lead-gen operators blasting “FREE SOLAR, NO COST TO YOU” taught them to treat solar vocabulary as high-risk. A legitimate solar sales team inherits that rough neighborhood: unregistered solar traffic is filtered fast, and even registered traffic gets extra content scrutiny.
Installer, dealer, or 1099 rep: one company registers, not every rep
Solar sales is rarely one company: installers run crews, dealers sell for installers, reps work 1099. The brand is the legal entity whose account sends the texts and whose name the texts carry.
- Installer with its own sales team: register the installer entity once, and let one campaign cover every rep's number. Do not make 30 reps file 30 sole-prop brands.
- Sales dealer selling for installers: if the texts go out from your account under your company name, your entity is the brand. Vetters compare the brand, the samples, and the website, so keep all three naming the same company.
- 1099 rep with no entity: Sole Proprietor registration exists, but it is capped around 1,000 messages a day and filtered hardest. Text through your dealer's registered account instead.
Step 1: Register your brand ($4, one time)
You register through your messaging provider (Twilio, Telnyx, Bandwidth), which passes it to TCR. You will need:
- Legal company name exactly as it appears on your IRS records. “Sunrise Solar LLC,” not “Sunrise Solar.” Copy it from your CP 575 letter character for character; EIN/name mismatch is the top brand failure.
- EIN. Each LLC that sends texts needs its own brand.
- Business address, website, and vertical (select Energy or the closest equivalent).
- A contact email on your company domain. A Gmail address on a solar company looks wrong to vetters.
Step 2: Pick Mixed, the campaign type most solar teams fit
The campaign is where solar companies get rejected, so slow down here. It costs ~$15 to vet plus $1.50 to $12 a month, and the use case you pick has to match what your samples show. Here is what a typical solar team texts:
| What you text | When | Reads to vetters as |
|---|---|---|
| Savings estimate after a door knock | Same day as the knock | Marketing |
| Consultation or site-survey reminder | Day before | Customer care |
| Permit, install day, and inspection updates | Through the install | Customer care |
| Referral ask or a nudge on an old quote | After install, or months later | Marketing |
That mix is why most solar teams belong in Mixed, or Low Volume Mixed under about 2,000 messages a day (roughly $1.50 to $2 a month vs. about $10 to $12 for Marketing or Mixed). Picking “Customer Care” to save a few dollars while your samples show sales follow-up is a fast rejection.
A solar campaign description that passes vetting
“Sunrise Solar sends appointment confirmations, follow-ups after in-person consultations, savings-estimate delivery, and installation status updates to homeowners who requested a solar quote via our website form or in person from a company representative. Recipients opt in at the time of the quote request. All messages identify Sunrise Solar and include opt-out instructions.”
3 sample texts that get solar campaigns approved
Submit 2 to 5 samples that look exactly like what you send, with opt-out language in at least one. Below, {firstName} is the homeowner and {userFirstName} is the rep:
Six mistakes that get solar campaigns rejected
Vetters treat these as deceptive marketing. Say “savings estimate” or “financing options,” never “free.”
Third-party lead generation and affiliate marketing are prohibited 10DLC content categories. Describe yourself as the installer or dealer contacting your own prospects, never as someone who generates or resells solar leads.
Any sample implying you are the utility, or that the tax credit is a government check, is an instant fail, and a TCPA lawsuit magnet on top.
“Homeowner signed the consent line on the rep's tablet” is opt-in; “we canvassed the neighborhood” is not. Automated marketing texts need prior express written consent, so a verbal yes on the porch does not cover them. The details are in our solar TCPA guide.
The campaign form asks how recipients consent. “We buy aged leads” is a vetting fail, and not legal consent anyway.
Vetters check your site. Put the opt-in checkbox text on your quote form, and add this to your privacy policy: “Mobile numbers and SMS opt-in consent are never sold or shared with third parties for marketing.”
Trust score to daily cap: 1,000 to 200,000 texts a day
| Trust score (approx.) | Tier | T-Mobile daily cap | What it means for a solar team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 to 100 | Top | ~200,000/day | Effectively unlimited for any dealer |
| 50 to 74 | Upper-mid | ~40,000/day | Plenty for multi-crew regional companies |
| 25 to 49 | Lower-mid | ~10,000/day | Fine for a typical 5 to 20 rep shop |
| 0 to 24 | Low | ~2,000/day | Small teams; external vetting can raise it |
| Sole Proprietor | Bottom | ~1,000/day | Heavy filtering; last resort without an EIN |
T-Mobile enforces published daily caps, AT&T limits rate per minute, Verizon filters on reputation. External vetting (roughly $40 one-time) can re-score a low brand, but most solar teams never use the lower-mid tier's capacity.
Door‑knock opt‑in: get it in writing so it holds up
On a web form, an unticked checkbox: “I agree to receive text messages from Sunrise Solar about my quote. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to opt out.” At the door, a spoken “sure, text me” is not written consent. Hand the homeowner your tablet or phone form, let them type their own number and tick that same line, and you have consent that is written, timestamped, and names your company.
STOP, CANCEL, and QUIT must permanently suppress the number. Your provider catches the keyword; your job is to never text it again.
The campaign form also asks for three automatic replies. Solar versions that pass:
Skip registration and every send dies with error 30034
Twilio blocks unregistered US-bound 10DLC traffic at the API with error 30034, so the message dies before it reaches a carrier. Traffic that slips through on other providers gets filtered, and every filtered message drags the number's reputation lower. Our Twilio deliverability guide covers diagnosing that spiral.
Registration costs about $20 up front and a few dollars a month; one filtered blast to your canvassed homeowners costs the blast, the leads, and the number. The same brand-then-campaign process covers roofing, home security, pest control, real estate, and property management, with different samples.
Skip the forms: start on a number that is already registered
If you would rather not file this yourself, FollowUp's Autopilot tier includes a dedicated 10DLC-registered business number, so your door-knock follow-ups and install updates go out registered from day one. The consent rules above still apply to what you send.
10DLC for solar installers: 7 questions answered
Do solar installers need A2P 10DLC registration?
Yes. Any solar installer, dealer, or sales company sending business SMS to US numbers from a standard 10-digit local number through software must register its brand and campaign through The Campaign Registry (TCR). Unregistered solar traffic is filtered or blocked by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon in 2026, and Twilio rejects it with error 30034 before it reaches a carrier.
How much does 10DLC registration cost for a solar company?
Brand registration is a $4 one-time fee. Campaign registration adds a one-time vetting fee of approximately $15, plus a recurring monthly fee of roughly $1.50 to $12 depending on the use case you pick. Carriers also add small per-message A2P surcharges, typically fractions of a cent per segment.
Which 10DLC campaign use case should a solar installer choose?
Most solar teams pick Mixed, because door-knock follow-up and savings estimates are marketing while appointment reminders and install updates are customer care. Teams under about 2,000 messages a day fit Low Volume Mixed at roughly $1.50 to $2 a month. Picking Customer Care while your samples show sales follow-up is a fast rejection.
Why was my solar SMS campaign rejected?
The most common reasons: sample messages containing "free solar" or "no cost" claims, campaign descriptions that read like lead generation or affiliate marketing (both prohibited content categories), missing opt-in descriptions, sample messages without opt-out language, and mismatches between the brand's website and what the campaign says it sends.
Do 1099 solar reps need their own 10DLC registration?
Not if they text through their dealer's or installer's registered account. The company registers once, and its campaign covers the reps' numbers. A rep sending through their own software account with no business entity can register as a Sole Proprietor, which is capped around 1,000 messages a day and filtered hardest.
How long does A2P 10DLC registration take for solar?
Brand registration with a valid EIN usually resolves in minutes to a few days. Campaign vetting typically takes a couple of days to a few weeks, longer if reviewers kick it back for content fixes. Budget two to four weeks end to end, and register before the install-season rush, not during it.
Can I text solar leads from my personal phone without 10DLC?
Person-to-person texting from your own handset is not A2P traffic, so 10DLC does not apply to a rep manually texting from their iPhone. The moment software sends through a carrier SMS API on your behalf, it is A2P and must be registered. Either way, TCPA consent rules still apply.
This is a general summary, not legal advice.
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