Trai has dismissed the rule which made it compulsory for a telecom operator to provide 100 SMSes at a discounted rate and charge 50 paise per SMS. As stated by Trai, the tariff regulation rule which can affect the interest of genuine non-commercial bulk users of SMSes is no longer necessary, and it can be removed. The move by Trai is also another step towards firming the regime of tariff forbearance. The phase 1 of the DLT implementation has been started from Monday, and all the telemarketers have registered their entity and header on their concerned telecom portals.
Telcos Will have Freedom to Fix Charges for Bulk SMS
The deletion of Schedule XIII will help the telecom operators to freely set up fix charges for such bulk SMSes by non-commercial users. The regulation of keeping higher charges above a certain limit of SMSes is stated in the Trai’s Telecom Tariff Order 2012. The sole reason for introducing the regulation was to keep away the text messages from unwanted and unregistered telemarketers. As reported by ET Telecom, the 2018 regime rule, Trai already mandate telcos to get the customer approval before sending any unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) from telemarketers. Trai also ensured that messages and calls are being done by registered and authorised telemarketers. To facilitate this, the telecom body have already deployed a blockchain technology.
Telcos Have Urged Trai to Retain the 50 Paise per Spam SMS Rule
All the major telecom operators of India like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio have already asked Trai to continue the 50 paise per spam SMS rule as it will keep away unwanted messages from telemarketers who are not registered. Rajan Mathews who is the director-general of COAI which is the representative body of telecom operators stated that the current tariff regime lacks financial disincentives which will push away the unwanted and unregistered telemarketers who are trying to get in the yard and bypass the customer safeguards. As per a telco executive, any user who was facing trouble from the tariff regime rule set by Trai could have registered and sent SMSes without any trouble.
