New SMS Regulations Cause Massive Unrest Among Telemarketers and Telecos

TRAI has implemented the new SMS Regulations on the directions of Delhi High Court today at 12 in the morning. This new development is causing massive drops in SMS delivery and delays, as telemarketers and telecoms rush to address the issue.

What are the new SMS Regulations?

The Delhi High Court had directed the apex telecom regulatory authority to implement "content scrubbing". In short, this blockchain-based process aims to lower the amount of unsolicited commercial SMSes received by customers. This is causing almost half of the traffic to drop due to the content not being specified as per the regulation imposed by TRAI this morning.

The process matches the content of every SMS against a set template. The header and the content of the SMS are checked for registered users while unregistered users are blocked.

Who is hit the worst?

Aadhar OTP authentication service has totally been incapacitated. Furthermore, crucial OTP verification of almost all the banks has been affected. Twitter users are talking the most about ICICI Bank, among others. Also, e-commerce OTPs have been affected adversely.

Meanwhile, TRAI and other telecoms have defended this new development and instead have blamed the companies who are facing the issues. Their point is that due to the non-serious approach of banks and other companies, they are facing the issue.

Top executives have been contacting TRAI to sort out the mess that it has become at the earliest but the former is very clear when it comes to swift implementation of the Regulations.

How will the new SMS Regulations affect the people?

The issue of unsolicited and potentially harmful SMSes is as old as the advent of the service. Nowadays the phishing attacks which can be carried out with the help of SMS are scarily sophisticated. TRAI has implemented a strong policy aimed to protect the end-user. Now, the ball is in the court of the companies who use the service. The apex authority has put it plainly: comply if you want to continue using the service.

The ultimate winner are the people like you and I who will be better safeguarded from any sort of SMS fraud starting today.