In a bid to curb the menace of spam messages, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Thursday asked enterprises such as banks, insurance companies, financial institutions and other entities to re-verify their SMS content templates with the telcos within two weeks.
The content templates are registered by such entities on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) for sending commercial messages to their users. Telcos only own the network, whereas the promotional messages are sent by enterprises through telemarketers registered on the DLT platforms. DLT platforms are run by telecom operators where businesses who are involved in sending bulk promotional or transactional SMS need to register by giving their business details, including sender IDs and SMS templates.
The development assumes significance amid increase in spam messages post which Trai in February directed the telecom companies to allow only registered telemarketers for sending messages on behalf of enterprises. The regulator also asked the telcos to clean the headers and content templates used for SMS by enterprises.
However, Trai said that many enterprises or principal entities have not yet completed the verification process for their headers and content templates. This delay poses risks such as spam and financial fraud, both inconveniencing the public, according to Trai.
Failure to comply may result in the blocking of headers, content templates, and messages, Trai said in a notification, adding that it will monitor the progress made during this period and, if necessary, issue further instructions.
Earlier this month, Trai asked telecom operators to stop the misuse of message templates used for commercial communication in the next 45 days.
In a direction, the telecom regulator has asked telcos to only allow only three variables in a content template. However, if any entity wishes to use more than three variables in a content template for sending communication to their users, the same should be allowed only after examining the sample message, and proper reasons and justification.