The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) plans to impose a penalty to deter telemarketers from sending bulk text messages.
TRAI will ask operators to charge Re 0.05 for every text message sent in bulk on their network. This levy will come into effect next week.
According to J.S. Sarma, chairman, TRAI, this step has been taken in view of various telemarketers’ attempt to defy its ban on unsolicited commercial calls and text messages, by using internet-based call and message facilities and private and foreign phone numbers.
TRAI had asked telecom operators to limit the number of short message services from September 27, 2011. The regulator had said that no access provider shall permit sending more than one hundred SMSs per day per SIM.
As per the recommendations, post-paid users could send 3,000 SMSs per month per SIM. In case a customer wanted to use more than the prescribed limit of 100 SMSs a day, the access provider was to obtain an undertaking from such subscribers that the said telephone number shall not be used for sending any commercial communications.
TRAI had also recommended imposing a maximum fine of Rs 0.25 million on telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls or sending text messages to a subscriber registered in the National Consumer Preference Registry, which is a modified version of TRAI’s Do Not Call Registry list.
Subscribers could opt for either the Fully Blocked category or the Partially Blocked category, wherein they would receive text messages as per the categories chosen. TRAI had also stipulated that messages in the Partially Blocked category could be sent to the consumer between 9 am and 9 pm.
TRAI had identified eight categories, including banking and financial products, real estate, education, health, consumer goods, automobiles, communication and entertainment, tourism and leisure, in the Partially Blocked category.
To register under the fully blocked list, the customer was required to send START 0 as a text message to 1909.
