New Delhi: Beginning September 1, 2024, mobile users in India may face disruptions in receiving service-related and transactional messages from their banks, financial institutions, and e-commerce companies.
This potential interruption is due to a new initiative by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to combat spam messages, especially to reduce phishing attempts.
TRAI has directed telecom operators to stop transmitting messages that contain URLs or callback numbers not whitelisted or registered with them. Banks, financial institutions, and online platforms must register their message templates and content with operators by August 31, 2024, or risk having such messages blocked.
At present, entities register only their headers and templates with telecom operators, not the actual message content. This means operators do not currently examine the content of messages. Starting next month, however, operators will be required to implement a system that can read the content of commercial messages and block any that do not correspond with their records.
The impact of this change is considerable, given that India sends approximately 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion commercial messages daily, amounting to about 55 billion messages per month, based on industry data.
Telecom industry leaders have sought more time from TRAI to fulfil this requirement, as it involves updating the blockchain-based distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Nonetheless, TRAI officials assert that the regulator has provided ample time and is not inclined to postpone the deadline.
Major telecom providers like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have yet to make a statement regarding this development.
