The Death of SMS: Important Update

As a result of onerous new rules and out of control fees imposed by cell phone providers, Gym Insight will be ending support for all current SMS accounts on August 31, 2023.

Messaging will be available through our Gym Insight Member's App, so have your members download the free Members App from their favorite application store and allow notifications!

Excessive new rules, procedures, fees, and fines outside of our control are about to take effect that will drastically impact all SMS messaging done by businesses. BEFORE August 31, 2023 all SMS messages sent by a business MUST be registered and approved by The Campaign Registry (TCR). The Campaign Registry was created to regulate robocalls, spam texts and opt-out options for cellular phone users to help ensure that claims of what is being sent matches "approved" content and behavior. Under this new entity, all SMS and MMS messages sent by a business must meet the following minimum criteria or the business will receive exorbitant fees:

• The business ("brand") must first be registered, vetted, and approved by TCR.
• The text message being sent ("campaign") must first be registered, vetted, and approved by both cell phone carries and TCR. Proof must be provided to TCR that each text message has been approved for sending and that the business is current with all newly established monthly fees required to keep a text message campaign active.
• Proof that each text message recipient has "opted in" to receive that text message will be required before sending a text message.

If you use SMS with Gym Insight, we highly recommend switching to our easy-to-use messaging feature through the Gym Insight Members App, so you can stay in communication with your members. This new messaging feature is currently in beta testing, and we expect it to be live on or before the August 31st deadline. ✨✨✨✨✨✨

Following is a small sample of some of the new carrier and TCR fees that will go into effect after August 31, 2023:

TCR Setup and Processing Fees:

• The following TCR fees are required (minimum):
  • $4 - $44 per "brand" registration depending on the type of company, per company. You will be required to provide all documentation establishing the ownership of your business as part of the newly required brand registration.
  • $10 monthly charge for each different "campaign" on file (you must prepay 3-months of this fee in advance for each campaign).
  • $15 per "campaign" vetting with each carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc., as many as you want to be able message). A campaign is each different text message.

• For example: If you want to send a text message, "Hi Jane, Welcome to the Gym!" the business will first have to pay a $15 fee and submit a request to be able to send that text message and then wait between 1 and 5 weeks for approval before you can send the message.
• This would also make it impossible for a business to have 2-way conversations, because you could not reply. For instance, when a member sends, "Hi, can I please reschedule this PT session?" You would not be able to reply to the member without incurring fines because the reply text would not be a registered approved campaign (there is currently debate as to whether or not "conversational" messaging as in this example will be permitted under a special type of campaign).

• Businesses will be required to provide proof  that each text message recipient opted in before receiving a text message or be subject to fines.
• Setup, fees, and maintenance for a supported SMS provider will vary by provider.

Here's an estimate of very, very minimum costs for the first 3 months:

Fines for TCR Non-Compliance:

• Up to $10 per message if a business sends a message without having both the business (brand) and text message (campaign) first registered and approved by TCR.
  • Example: If you sent a text-message blast to 1,500 members and one or more carriers deemed it to be in violation, you would incur a fine of $15,000!
• $250 for any inactive campaign not used within 60-days. If you've paid to register a text-message campaign, but don't use it, you'll incur this fine.
• Text Enablement: A $10,000 pass-through fee if T-Mobile receives a complaint that you or your message sender text-enabled a 10-digit telephone number and sent messages prior to verification of the message sender ownership and/or letter of authorization.
• Messaging Program Evasion: A $1,000 pass-through fee if a program is found to be using evasion techniques such as "snowshoeing," dynamic routing, or unauthorized number replacement (whatever that means).
• Content Violation: A $10,000 pass-through fee for each unique instance of the third or any subsequent notification of content violating any carrier's Code of Conduct involving the same content provider. This includes SHAFT (Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco) violations, spam, phishing, and messaging that meets the Severity 0 violation threshold per the CTIA Short Code Monitoring Handbook.

Other Options:

Again, you can head to the App Store and Google Play Store to get the Gym Insight Members App, and enjoy our easy-to-use messaging feature!