In a bid to control the menace of unsolicited commercial SMSes filling up consumers’ inbox, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has yet again amended the guidelines and has now set a limit of 100 SMS per day per user that can be availed at concessional rates. Though TRAI has not set a limit on SMSes, messages sent beyond the limit (i.e. 100 SMSes) in a day will be charged at more than 50 paise.
TRAI has also made the process of complaining about unsolicited messages easy. Now a consumer can simply forward the unwanted SMS after putting in date and number from which it was received to 1909.
This move will only affect the unregistered telemarketers, as registered telemarketers do not send SMSes to those who have registered with do not call registry (DND).
TRAI has also asked mobile service providers to set up mechanism within three months to block all SMSes having same or similar characters or strings or variants from any source or number.
The solution will ensure that not more than 200 SMSs with such similar ‘signature’ are sent in an hour. Normal consumers sending non-commercial SMSs will also not be affected by this measure.
TRAI has also asked mobile operators to ensure consumer awareness and to create mechanism for easy complaints through web and SMS.
In case you are not registered with DND till now, you can do so by either making a call to 1909 and full or partially block unwanted SMS, you can also send ‘START 0’ or START 1 to 7 (if you want to receive some messages from a certain type of services like financial services, real estate, education, health, consumer goods and auto, entertainment and tourism) to 1909. You can also log onto the website of your mobile operator to find details.