TRAI has said that all units will have to meet the prescribed standards by 31 March 2021. If this is not done, SMS communication with their customers may be interrupted from April 1, 2021.
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Bulk SMS, that is, SMS sent in bulk, which is sent to the mobile numbers of common people on behalf of government institutions, marketing companies, etc. In this regard, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has tightened the rules by following a strict stance. There has also been a warning to stop the SMS service of companies that do not follow these rules.
Despite this, there are about 40 such units, which are not following the prescribed standards. In such a situation, TRAI has released a list of 40 such defaulting units. It is worth noting that 17 government and private banks are included in these 40 units. According to The Live Mint report, these banks include State Bank (SBI), Axis Bank, ICICI, HDFC Bank (HDFC), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Kotak Mahindra Bank, LIC, etc.
Millions of bank consumers will be affected
According to ET’s report, apart from government and private banks, Flipkart, National Stock Exchange, non-banking finance companies are also included in this list. TRAI has granted everyone till March 31. It is being said that SMS services will be discontinued if the standards set by March 31 are not ensured.
If this happens, the biggest difference will be the consumers of the banks. Crores of bank customers will not receive SMS related to essential services. It may also affect the OTP service required for the transaction.
TRAI has given deadline till 31 March
While tightening the stance on this subject, TRAI has said that all units will have to meet the prescribed standards by March 31, 2021. If this is not done, SMS communication with their customers may be interrupted from April 1, 2021.
TRAI said in its statement that major units, tele-marketing companies, have been given enough time to meet the regulatory norms and mandatory requirements. Consumers cannot be further denied regulatory benefits. It has been decided that from April 1, messages not complying with the regulatory requirements will be stopped.
What are the standards that must be followed?
Under TRAI rules, units sending commercial text messages will have to register the message header and template with the respective telecom operators. When SMS and OTP goes to all these entities like banks, companies and other entities, the same will be examined from the template registered on the blockchain platform. This entire process is called SMS scrubbing.
Why is this being done vigorously?
The rules of TRAI’s commercial messages based on blockchain technology are aimed at curbing bank fraud, cyber fraudulent messages. TRAI has analyzed the scrubbing data and reports submitted by the telecom companies. Please tell that in this regard, a necessary meeting has already been held with the Tele Marketing Companies / Aggregators on 25th March.
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