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Comma Compliance Docs

eSIM SMS Permanent-Identity Numbers

Most SMS compliance solutions tie the archive to a SIM. Change the phone, lose the number. Comma’s hosted eSIM gateway flips that: each user gets a permanent business number issued from our pool, hosted in our infrastructure, that they keep across device changes and personnel changes.

Why permanent-identity numbers matter

Section titled “Why permanent-identity numbers matter”
  • Continuity for clients - the customer’s contact never breaks when the employee swaps phones
  • Continuity for archives - a single thread of capture per number, regardless of which device is paired this week
  • Privacy - the user’s personal phone number never enters the archive
  • Provisioning - admins assign and reassign numbers from a pool without carrier porting paperwork

How it works

Section titled “How it works”

Comma operates a fleet of physical modems (currently in our US data center, with more regions on request) carrying eSIM profiles from production carriers. Each eSIM is provisioned with a real phone number that we hold in the pool.

When you assign a number to a user:

  • The user’s business identity is bound to that number
  • Inbound SMS/MMS to the number flows through our gateway into the archive
  • Outbound SMS goes through the same gateway (when the user has the soft-phone or relay app configured)
  • The user’s personal device is unaffected

If the user changes phones, we simply re-bind. The number stays. The history stays. The integration card in Comma keeps the same identifier.

Available in

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  • Voice and SMS: US (+1 numbers; live in production with multiple carriers)
  • Additional regions and number pools are available on request

How to provision

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Provisioning is a Comma-side concierge step right now (we want to verify the assignment before issuing a real carrier-bound number). To assign:

  1. Sign in to the Comma Compliance dashboard
  2. Open Settings > Connectivity > Number pool
  3. Click Request numbers with the count and user assignments you need
  4. The Comma team confirms availability and assigns the numbers from the pool

Inbound delivery and policy hooks

Section titled “Inbound delivery and policy hooks”

Every inbound SMS lands as an IncomingSms record. Comma’s policy engine evaluates each one and routes:

  • Direct messages from contacts already in the user’s roster: archive + notify
  • Sender-unrecognized SMS: still archived; the policy engine may flag, suppress notification (for example, SMS OTPs that we’ve learned to recognize as low-signal), or escalate to staff review based on your team’s configuration

Costs

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Permanent-identity number provisioning is included in the platform fee for the first set of numbers per team and metered above that. Talk to Sales for current pricing.

What’s next

Section titled “What’s next”