In last 2 years, TRAI has made several amendments in the regulations to curb the menace of Spam SMSes or Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) to mobile subscribers.
Some of the measures TRAI took t stop pesky SMSes included stopping SMSes through international gateways, DND Implementation, putting a ceiling on the limit of SMSes sent in day, signature verification of Bulk SMSes, strengthening consumer complaint redressal process & many others.
Even after these stringent measures, UCCs are being relayed to customers and TRAI still receives most complaints from mobile subscribers in regards to them.
Telemarketers have found new ways to circumvent these measures by not registering as telemarketers with TRAI. They use bulk SMS packs and send it as normal subscribers. Due this they are able to reach out to those customers who have registered themselves with National Customer Preference Register (NCPR).
TRAI is of the opinion that service providers are actually encouraging these tele-marketers by providing attractive bulk SMS packages. So, they have now further amended the regulations to penalize telecom operators through whom these UCCs are sent.
Features of New Regulation Amendments
- Telecom Operator will have to pay a fine of Rs. 5000 for every Spam SMS complaint registered by mobile subscriber. The UCC will be verified to see if it has come from non-registered telemarketer.
- Telecom Operator will now have to submit (by 15th of every month) to TRAI the list of all bulk connections provided during the preceding month.
- If the Spam SMS contains reference to another telephone number or entity for which the commercial transaction has been solicited, those subscribers / entities will face full disconnection of services after serving notices each on the first and the second complaint.
There is absolutely no doubt that menace of Spam SMSes has come down everytime new amendments curbing them are added to regulation. Penalizing the telecom operator itself will now be a huge deterrent to the operator and every complaint received has a huge fine attached to it!
I hope that with this change, we can finally say Spam messages a final good-bye!