Amid disruptions, TRAI suspends norms for commercial text messages for one week

The latest norms, based on blockchain technology, aim to curb unsolicited and fraudulent messages

After complaints of massive disruption of SMS services, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday announced its decision to temporarily suspend the implementation of the new anti-spam regulations, which aimed at curbing unsolicited commercial text messages, for one week.

The regulator granted companies seven more days to adopt the new framework to prevent financial fraud and spam text messages.

Telecom companies had implemented the Telecom Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) that were meant to reduce SMS spam. The news norms came into effect on Monday.

However, this disrupted a number of services and transactions such as net banking, Aaadhar card authentication, credit card payments, railway ticket bookings, among others, on Monday as SMSs and one-time passwords (OTPs) could not be generated on customers’ devices.

"In order to protect the interest of consumers, it has been decided that scrubbing of SMS by TSPs (telecom service providers) shall be suspended temporarily for seven days to
enable the principal entities to register the template of SMS so that no inconvenience is faced by the customers," a statement from TRAI said.

"TSPs are being requested to inform their principal entities to take immediate necessary action in this regard and facilitate their registration including SMS template in a time-bound manner," the statement said.