Telecom operators have used technology to block all unwanted messages immediately, industry body COAI said on Wednesday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has set a deadline of December 11 for telecom service providers to track and block all messages that do not comply with its nuisance messaging law.
“According to the order issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on August 20, 2024, all commercial messages sent by Principle Entities (PEs) must now be fully traceable. “Effective on December 11, 2024, messages that are not linked. have a telemarketer (TM) chain defined or aligned will be blocked, reinforcing an important step in safe and transparent communication. channels,” said COAI, Director General, SP Kochhar in a statement.
This move is expected to bring long awaited relief to spam sms subscribers.
“To comply with the TRAI guidelines, all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) members of COAI have successfully submitted the required technical solutions and are technically ready to implement the PE-TM binding process,” Kochhar said.
The regulator authorized primary entities (PEs) — a business or any other entity that wants to send bulk SMS — and the telemarketer (TM) connected by them to send SMSes that will be linked to the telecom operators’ blockchain platform in such a way that it helps identify PEs and associated TMs.
COAI members include all private telecom operators — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.
The mechanism will help fix the accountability of organizations and TMs that send spam or promotional messages to a subscriber who has opted out during their registration on Trai’s Do Not Disturb list.
According to COAI, telecom operators are actively engaged with around 18,000 telecom vendors and over 300,000 PEs.
PEs include organizations from various sectors, including BFSI, insurance, state and central government organizations, etc.
Kochhar said that as of now, more than 90 percent of PEs, including the majority of commercial traffic, have successfully registered their chains.
“From December 11, 2024, the blocking mode will be in full effect. Any message where the telemarketing chain is not defined or matched will be rejected as per TRAI guidelines,” Kochhar said.
