CHENNAI: There might be some respite from the annoying text messages that clog your phone inbox, asking you to buy land or the latest brand of laptops for a steal, with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) instructing service providers not to provide packages that allow more than 100 SMSes per day from March 1, 2011. This is the third time the deadline has been extended though. Trai had earlier set January 1 as the date for imposing the restriction before it was postponed to February 1.
Besides, Trai has also said that a separate numbering series-beginning with '140'-will be allocated to telemarketers so that all telemarketing calls can be identified. Any call that comes from any number beginning with 140 will be a commercial call and the customer will have the choice of receiving it. In the same way, a unique SMS header has been prescribed which would make it easy to identify commercial text messages. These regulations have been ordered by the TRAI due to the increasing number of unsolicited commercial calls and messages.
"We have simplified the registration process for telemarketers and hopefully all of them will register with the Trai, but in order to minimize telemarketing calls and text messages from unregistered telemarketers, all service providers have been asked to restrict the number of text messages per day to 100," said TRAI advisor S K Gupta.
He also said that transactional messages would be exempt from this in order to allow communication between agencies such as banks, insurance companies, telecom service providers and providers sending train and flight schedules. "Even then only transactional messages which are relevant will be permitted and those which are promotional in nature will not be," said Gupta. He also said that the telemarketers' registration has already commenced from January 15.
According to TRAI data on SMS usage in urban India, it was found that an Indian sends an average of 29 messages per month but 75% of them receive a minimum of four marketing or promotional messages in a day.
TOI
Besides, Trai has also said that a separate numbering series-beginning with '140'-will be allocated to telemarketers so that all telemarketing calls can be identified. Any call that comes from any number beginning with 140 will be a commercial call and the customer will have the choice of receiving it. In the same way, a unique SMS header has been prescribed which would make it easy to identify commercial text messages. These regulations have been ordered by the TRAI due to the increasing number of unsolicited commercial calls and messages.
"We have simplified the registration process for telemarketers and hopefully all of them will register with the Trai, but in order to minimize telemarketing calls and text messages from unregistered telemarketers, all service providers have been asked to restrict the number of text messages per day to 100," said TRAI advisor S K Gupta.
He also said that transactional messages would be exempt from this in order to allow communication between agencies such as banks, insurance companies, telecom service providers and providers sending train and flight schedules. "Even then only transactional messages which are relevant will be permitted and those which are promotional in nature will not be," said Gupta. He also said that the telemarketers' registration has already commenced from January 15.
According to TRAI data on SMS usage in urban India, it was found that an Indian sends an average of 29 messages per month but 75% of them receive a minimum of four marketing or promotional messages in a day.
TOI
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