The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) most recent policy against blocking spam messages will finally be inculcated in all the 23 telecom circles of India after a week i.e. on September 27, 2011. This policy was issued by TRAI long back on December 1, 2010 and has been postponed and amended as many as six times. The Telecom Minister of India, Mr. Kapil Sibal announced last month that unsolicited ‘mobile marketing’ through Bulk SMS sending will surely end within six weeks and it looks as if he has kept those words.
You can download the detailed Regulations regarding the same from TRAI here.
Major Features of the SMS spam regulation (Current Issue)
- ‘140’ Series Number: The Department of Telecom (DoT) has provided a series of number starting with 140 which will be exclusively allocated to Telemarketers. This will be an effective step as it will make it clear for the users to recognize Telemarketing Calls easily.
- Opt-in Categories: The Customers will have the facility to opt in or out of Marketing Messages on the basis of types. In the current Issue, Seven categories assigned are:
- Banking/Insurance/Financial products/Credit Cards
- Real Estate
- Education
- Health
- Consumer Goods and Automobiles
- Communication/Broadcasting/Entertainment/IT
- Tourism and Leisure.
- Time limits: Every Access Provider will ensure that all kind of Commercial Communication of Mobiles other than Transactional Messages is sent to customer in a period of 12 hours a day which is between 0900 Hrs to 2100 Hrs.
*Maximum Limit for number of SMS sent: All access providers will ensure that no one is permitted to send more than 100 messages per day per SIM or 3000 messages per month per SIM.
Mobile users will now more or less be immune to spam SMSes due to the much-applauded new regulation. However, customers who are used to sending more than 100 SMSes per day have started to feel uneasy as well.
Impact on Bulk SMS Marketing
According to a Medianama report, the following are the impacts on mobile marketing which might also affect the bulk SMS business of companies like NetCore, 2ergo, Way2SMS:
- Shift of trend towards WAP advertising
- Smaller database set available for bulk marketing
- Higher cost to send a sms for a company
- Risky for companies as one SMS which goes wrong may lead to legal action
Most of the features seem to be really good for the common man, I wonder how the youth of today will cope up with a limit of 100 SMSes a day. I think apps like WhatsApp might be the best solution.
It’s TRAI is going to come really hard on the bulk SMS marketing companies who fail to follow the rules. They are now prone to more risks while they send SMSes. Wonder whether the government should listen to their side as well if someone complains. Also, a popular Indian app SMS Blocker has been instrumental in blocking most of my spam messages. I’ll suggest you download this till the time the new regulation comes.
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