Glitches keep subscribers from getting essential SMSes

Glitches keep subscribers from getting essential SMSes

CHENNAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) attempt to curb unwanted telemarketing calls and SMSes doesn't seem to be a complete success just yet. Many consumers say that they continue to receive spam messages and calls. However, the new regulations seem to have blocked messages from essential services like the traffic police, CB-CID or other government agencies.

"We have found out that our anti-fraud awareness alerts are not reaching many recipients. We have approached the mobile service providers to find out what the trouble is," said a CB-CID officer.

Some say that the new regulations have brought down the number of spam messages. "The failure to stop telemarketing messages completely is due to some technical glitch, probably with the mobile service providers," said consumer activist T Sadagopan, who has also registered with the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). He has also written to TRAI authorities about this.

TRAI recently limited the number of SMSes a person could send in a day to 100 to curb spam by telemarketers. To control messages that they receive from registered telemarketers, customers have to register with NCPR, which allows them to block commercial communication by sending an SMS to or calling 1909. Consumers can also choose to receive messages related to real estate, banking, education, health or entertainment. However, under TRAI guidelines, even those registered with NCPR are supposed to receive transactional messages from banks, railways, airlines, and state or Central government-authorized agencies.

"The cap on the number of SMSes means that I am no longer receiving messages from sites such as Facebook or Google," says Sadagopan. "I don't receive confirmation messages from other essential services like call taxis," he said. Some city schools that used bulk SMS to correspond with parents say that they are not able to do so anymore.

"Messages sent from sites such as Way2SMS are also not coming through," said K Gayatri, a college student. "I have tried to deregister from the NCPR to allow these messages, but the site is not allowing this action," she said.