100 SMSes a Day

100 SMSes a Day;What’s the Big Deal?

In a bid to stop Unsolicited Commercial Communication, TRAI has introduced a regulation of imposing a limit of 100 SMS per day per SIM.

By PRIYANKA TILVE

The Telecom Regulatory Authority

of India (TRAI) has time and

again introduced regulations

with a view to resolving and addressing

the growing issue of UCC (Unsolicited

Commercial Communication). One

part of this effort was the introduction

of Do Not Disturb (DND), but it was

observed that even opting for complete

DND could not guarantee respite from

pesky calls and SMSes. So as a step

forward, TRAI has introduced the The

Telecom Commercial Communications

Customer Preference Regulations, 2010.

The regulation has come into force

from September 27, 2011 and according

to it, a limit of 100 SMS per day per SIM

has been imposed. This also includes

Web portals that allow you to send free

SMS as well as SMS aggregators. This

has been done in order to put an end to

the use of ordinary numbers for sending

commercial communication. According to

TRAI, special SMS packages like ‘2,000

SMS per day’ etc. offered by telecom

operators were being misused to send

UCC, and by imposing a limit of 100 SMS

per SIM per day, it feels it will end the

menace for good.

Understanding the

Regulation

TRAI has created separate categories,

namely transactional messages and

promotional messages. Transactional

messages include those sent by your

bank, information sent by registered

educational institutes to its students or

parents, PNR status, etc. and you will

receive these even if you are registered

for complete DND. As of now, TRAI has

identified a few business categories that

need to send such transactional SMS

messages and are therefore exempted

from the 100 SMS regulation. These are

as follows:

 Dealers of the Telecom Service

Providers and DTH Operators for

sending request for electronic

recharge on mobile numbers.

 E-ticketing agencies for responding to

e-ticketing requests from customers.

 Social networking sites - Facebook,

Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn and

GooglePlus to its members pertaining

to activities relating to their accounts.

 Agencies providing directory services

– Just Dial, Zatse, Callezee, Getit and

Askme.

However, the above mentioned entities

will be exempted from the 100 SMS cap

only after they provide an undertaking

to the service provider that they will not

use the said facility to send commercial

communication.

The entities that are affected by the

regulation can make an appeal to the

TRAI, and after providing the required

undertaking, can seek exemption. On the

other hand, a registered telemarketer

(TM) is exempted from this rule of 100

SMS per day for sending promotional

messages, but this shouldn’t bother

you if you have registered yourself for

DND. This regulation can seriously hurt

those who are not registered as a TM

with TRAI and are making use of SMS

packages offered by telecom operators

to send out promotional SMSes.

How will this make any difference

to you? Well, as per the rules of the

TRAI, a registered TM is supposed to

periodically scrub its data with the

National Customer Preference Register

(NCPR). So if you have opted for DND,

then your number will be deleted

from the list or your preferences

edited depending on the partial or

complete DND you opted for. This

ensures that you do not receive UCC.

The End of UCC?

Speaking on the issue, Rajan S

Mathews, director general at the Cellular

Operators Association of India (COAI)

said, “Restricting to 100 SMS per day

per SIM is not in the consumer’s best

interest. While the TRAI has asked the

service providers to limit the number

of SMS per SIM to 100 per day, even

for the subscribers who genuinely use

SMS (and may require sending more

than 100 SMS per day) as a mode of

communication (non-commercial), it may

cause unwarranted hardships, especially

in times of urgency. Further, it poses a

hindrance to individual preferences of

the people, thereby violating the right

to freedom of speech and expression,

creating an artificial barrier. This might

pose a serious challenge as customers

may complain of interference in their

fundamental rights.”

“We believe that the regulation is

equally effective even without this

limit because of two well thoughtout

procedural checks defined in the

regulation. Firstly, as per the regulation,

commercial communication can only

be done by a registered TM and not by

a normal subscriber. Secondly, in case

any subscriber indulges in sending UCC,

which only a registered TM is allowed to

perform, the subscriber’s number would

be disconnected on the second occasion

of such a violation. To further strengthen

these checks, COAI has also proposed

the introduction of a differential tariff

should the threshold of 100 SMS per

day be exceeded. Such an alternative

would be more rational than capping

it to 100 SMS per day, since this will

not only act as a potential deterrent

to any UCC, but may also prove to be

a commercially untenable proposition

for such telemarketers. Also, the

telemarketers could easily use multi-SIMs

and organize their daily calls/SMS over

these resources to ensure that the daily

limit is not breached,” Mathews added.

Shaily Shah, research analyst at

Gartner, says, “If I were to look at the

whole history of where this is coming

from, then consumers were definitely

very annoyed as even after opting for

DND, they were still getting a lot of

marketing calls. I think the consumers

in general won’t be affected that much

because a huge bunch of the population

has now moved on to smartphones and

they are using other applications to get

in touch with each other. Having said

that, it’s not entirely a win-win situation

and there are customers who will get

affected by it.

For instance, traders are complaining

that because they have not been

able to get the stock tips in time or

the investment advice in time to their

investors, the amount of trading volumes

has wavered. Since this regulation has

come into effect only recently, everyone

is struggling to find a common ground,

but looking at the larger picture, I can

say that the whole mobile advertising

industry will become more organized,

controlled and targeted now.”

The Ground Reality

Just before this new regulation was

introduced, several e-commerce sites,

DTH operators and deal sites sent out

email and SMS alerts to their customers

asking them to deregister their number

from DND and instead opt for partial

DND to continue receiving SMS alerts

from them. After this, the TRAI issued a

statement urging customers to beware

of such messages and not to deregister

from the NCPR. The TRAI stated that

such messages were apparently based

on a misunderstanding of the regulations

and that the recent regulation will in no

way impact transactional messages.

While on one hand, it may, to an

extent, help curb the problem of UCC,

the regulation has adversely affected

individuals who are heavy text users.

College students, for instance, largely

communicate via SMS and may see

this regulation as one that curbs their

freedom. Others likely to be affected

include corporate, who use SMS for

internal communication, retailers, share

brokers, and independent business

owners. If it’s any consolation, this limit

won’t be applicable on festivals and

other select days. For those who depend

heavily on SMS, a possible solution could

be the use of dual SIM phones or non-

SMS messaging apps.

Whether this move by the TRAI is

effective in resolving the problem of UCC

will be clear in the near future, but as

of now, it has only given rise to an air of

confusion and outrage.

–          priyanka.tilve@chip.in