As part of its plan to crack down on pesky short messaging service (
SMSs), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai) has said only
100 SMSs per day per SIM card would be allowed at concessional rates.
Beyond this number, telecom service providers cannot charge less than 50
paise per local SMS, Trai principal adviser N. Parameswaran said at a
press conference here on Monday. Currently, these SMSs cost as low as 1
or 2 paise.
Telecom operators have also been asked to put in place a technical solution within three months, which will ensure that no commercial SMSs are sent having the same or similar characters from any source number. Such a system will ensure that not more than 200 SMSs with such similar ‘ signature’, character or string are sent in an hour, he said.
However, registered telemarketers, transactional messagesending entities and telephone numbers exempted by Trai are excluded from this provision, Parameswaran added.
“ These are the first slew of measures to contain illegal, unregistered telemarketers.
Since the regulation on telemarketers came into effect in September last year, we issued notices to over 1.33 lakh unregistered telemarketers and have disconnected over 1 lakh such connections till October 22 last month,” he further added.
Telecom operators may discontinue some SMS packages and hike tariffs. But some operators like TTSL may not take such measures because they have high stakes in the SMS and telemarketing business.
The new Trai order has to be implemented
within 15 days, Parameswaran said adding that these measures are initial
steps and more will follow. Subscribers will be able to lodge
complaints if bombarded with unsolicited SMSs or calls at the toll free
number 1909 from November 6.
The Trai said that complaints will
then get uploaded on the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer
Preference Portal website ( http://www. nccptrai.gov. in)Telecom operators have also been asked to put in place a technical solution within three months, which will ensure that no commercial SMSs are sent having the same or similar characters from any source number. Such a system will ensure that not more than 200 SMSs with such similar ‘ signature’, character or string are sent in an hour, he said.
However, registered telemarketers, transactional messagesending entities and telephone numbers exempted by Trai are excluded from this provision, Parameswaran added.
“ These are the first slew of measures to contain illegal, unregistered telemarketers.
Since the regulation on telemarketers came into effect in September last year, we issued notices to over 1.33 lakh unregistered telemarketers and have disconnected over 1 lakh such connections till October 22 last month,” he further added.
Telecom operators may discontinue some SMS packages and hike tariffs. But some operators like TTSL may not take such measures because they have high stakes in the SMS and telemarketing business.
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