4 Key Points of Disagreement in A2P Wholesale Partnerships

Underlying Conflicts in Wholesale Partnerships

Many A2P wholesale SMS partnerships stall or terminate due to misaligned perceptions and unclear standards regarding roles and responsibilities, rather than the quality of the routing itself.

Four Key Areas of Disagreement

1. Divergent Perceptions of Traffic

• Suppliers expect to handle high-quality traffic (e.g., OTPs and notifications).


• Buyers mix in marketing or miscellaneous traffic, leading to discrepancies regarding message blocking and complaints.




2. Disagreements on Delivery Verification



• Downstream partners prioritize platform-level delivery receipts, while upstream providers rely on carrier-level Delivery Reports (DLRs).


• Situations where a channel reports "delivered" but the end-user never receives the message frequently trigger disputes.




3. Ambiguity in Compliance Roles



• Distributors expect upstream providers to handle all risk management, whereas upstream providers require downstream partners to self-screen content.


• Blurred boundaries create risks of account suspension or route shutdowns.




4. Discrepancies Between Testing and Production Standards



• Test traffic is clean and stable, whereas production traffic patterns often shift abruptly.


• This issue is a primary cause of partnership breakdowns for routes in many countries.

Wholesale partners should align on these four standards early on to reduce integration inefficiencies and ensure long-term business stability.