'Precaution Was Taken To Ensure Customers Don't...'
December 12, 2024 09:35
There has been "minimal rejection' of text messages, and no disruptions in users receiving important commercial communication on the first day of the new national traceability mandate, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) officials said on Wednesday.
Telecom operators, who have to ensure that the telemarketer chains of commercial messages are known before such messages reach consumers, said 90 per cent of businesses, accounting for the vast majority of commercial traffic, have registered with them.
From December 11, all messages sent by businesses or principal entities (PEs), including banks, e-commerce platforms, and financial institutions, among others, to the public have to be traceable under Trai's new norms.
Messages with undefined or mismatched telemarketer chains will be rejected by the system. In case the entire chain of telemarketers involved in the message transmission does not match the expected sequence, messages would also be rejected.
Brought out in August, the new norms had given rise to concerns over potential disruptions in delivering essential transactional and service messages such as 'one time passwords (OTPs)' by businesses. But Trai officials said the system has been put in place.
"There have been no challenges on the first day. Enough precaution was taken to ensure customers don't miss out on important communication across categories. Based on updates by the telecom operators, there has been a minimal rejection of messages since robust systems have been put in place to ensure no service gap occurs," an official said.
All telcos have implemented the technical solutions, and the operators have also sent many warning notices to all businesses and registered telemarketers, who have not yet implemented necessary changes, he added.
Industry estimates indicate that 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion commercial messages are sent in India each day.
The telcos have also updated their systems to comply with the new norms, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents private sector telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, said on Wednesday.
"Starting December 11, the blocking mode will be fully operational. Any message where the telemarketer chain is undefined or does not match, will be rejected in accordance with Trai's directives. This proactive measure is expected to minimise disruption and consumer inconvenience, given the extensive preparatory work undertaken by telecom operators and stakeholders," COAI said.
Telcos have actively engaged with approximately 18,000 telemarketers, including delivery telemarketers, and over 3 lakh PEs, COAI said.To ensure a seamless transition and to minimise any disruption to consumers, telcos had implemented a technical rollout of the new process from November 1, COAI said.
"During this phase, traffic was not blocked due to hash mismatches or unregistered chains, allowing telecom operators to identify and address failures in collaboration with PEs and telemarketers. Telcos have also agreed to send daily status updates to telemarketers and PEs, allowing time for necessary adjustments before the enforcement date," it added.
While the initial deadline for the new norms was November 1, it had been extended twice after both businesses and RTMs (registered telemarketers) complained that the short notice would not give them enough time to institute technical upgrades.
Subhayan Chakraborty/Business Standard
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