The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released a list of defaulters that failed to apply the new SMS rules to prevent the threat of unsolicited commercial SMS. Among the agencies that ignore Trai’s policies are the State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra and Life Insurance Corporation of India.
The telecommunications regulator called on all organizations and telecommunications operators to comply with regulatory requirements before March 31 to avoid disruption of telecommunications services from April 1. Other regulatory agencies such as the RBI, SEBI, IRDA, central government and government departments, some private organizations and institutions. they were told to insist on these organizations to follow strict control procedures.
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“It has been reported that large enterprises including major banks such as State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank, Axis bank etc do not pass mandatory parameters such as content template IDs, core business IDs etc, or in cases where content templates is registered, while sending such messages to TSP (telecom service providers) to deliver them, “said a Trai notice.
In total, 17 private banks and governments will still use the new SMS framework. E-commerce and financial companies such as Flipkart and Bajaj Finance and the India Bulls, as well as brokers such as Kotak Securities, Angel Broking and the National Stock Exchange are also listed on the payroll.
Trai notification also includes a list of 40 telemarketers who have not registered SMS templates and telecom operators. With a stern warning, Trai said it appears that “a few organizations are not only indifferent but also unwilling to comply with the rules of the law and thus create disruption for consumers”.
Trai said this was “inappropriate and not allowed to continue”.
Trai had issued Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Selection Regulations, 2018 (“TCCCPR, 2018”) on July 19, 2018, to curb the threat of unsolicited text messages. The rules came into effect on February 28, 2019.
As is customary, OTP senders, transactional messages, service messages or commercial messages are required to fulfill the prescribed procedures for sending multiple messages. This not only helps prevent spam but also spam messages.
Trai says some major organizations have failed to meet the criteria even after two years, even though they are fully aware of the consequences. To protect consumers, Trai has asked telcoes to temporarily suspend text messaging for seven days so that organizations can register SMS templates so there are no disruptions facing customers.
On March 17, TSPs worked to clean up the SMS content template. However, to avoid public nuisance, traffic is allowed to pass at present, even if it does not meet regulatory procedures.
The main reasons for non-compliance are the failure to register the content template, the lack of ID, and the incompatibility of the registered template with the message sent. “All of these outbreaks can be caused by the neglect and proper care of key agencies, telecommunications and aggregators,” Trai said.
