Web-sent SMSs now face restrictions

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New Delhi, Mar 6: Sending free SMSs via websites won’t be easy anymore. Concerned at the misuse of the service, by sending messages using other people’s numbers, a DoT-industry committee has now decided that only websites authenticated by the mobile operators can be used for sending such messages.

The operators have given an undertaking to the department of telecommunications (DoT) that they would comply with the new directions.

Till now, websites didn’t need an authentication from service providers for the SMS service. DoT and the service providers have been receiving complaints about the misuse of the service wherein users would send messages by using someone else’s mobile number, which is a security threat.

The move would also dampen the spirits of websites that send SMSs to consumers for promotional purposes. These websites now need to be authenticated by the operators.

The committee has also decided that the service providers must also ensure that the SMSs received by their network from a website would not have India’s country code +91 as the sender party’s address. The code +91 is strictly reserved for messages sent from a mobile phone. However, the service providers’ responsibility would not extend to the content of the messages, which would solely lie with the content providers.

The access and control mechanisms would also include checks like the user/ password authentication, white list of static IP address from where the applications access the SMS centre and the spam filters.