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NEW DELHI: Telecom operators will begin rejecting messages with undefined or unmatchable telemarketer chains from Wednesday (December 11), per the sector regulator’s directive, in a bid to curb spam which has affected mobile subscribers’ experience lately. “Starting December 11, 2024, the blocking mode will be fully operational. Any message where the telemarketer chain is undefined or does not match will be rejected in accordance with TRAI 's directives,” said SP Kochhar, Director-General of the Cellular Operators Association of India ( COAI ) which represents telecom carriers Reliance Jio , Bharti Airtel , and Vodafone Idea .
Advt “This proactive measure is expected to minimise disruption and consumer inconvenience,” Kochhar said, adding that telecom operators and stakeholders have undertaken extensive preparatory work to this extent. The Delhi-based association’s comments come against the backdrop of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ’s (TRAI) directive dated August 20, 2024, which mandates traceability of all commercial messages sent by the principal entities (PEs). As per the directive, which came into effect today (December 11), messages that do not have a defined or matching telemarketer (TM) chain will be blocked which will bolster safer and transparent communication channels for mobile subscribers.
The telecom regulator had initially set November 1 as the date to implement the mandate, bvut was extended by a month to December 1, and then pushed to December 11 after telcos warned of massive disruptions if they started blocking messages that did not allow their origin to be traced. Operators had said most telemarketers and business entities like banks were not technically prepared for the new rules. On November 30, TRAI revealed that 27,000 principal entities had already registered their chains with the respective telcos and further registration was in progress at a rapid pace.
The regulator has yet to share the updated number. However, COAI said more than 90% of PEs, accounting for the majority of commercial traffic, have successfully registered their chains. Advt Industry data shows that upto 1.
7 billion commercial messages are sent daily, underscoring the extent of the disruption if messages are blocked or undelivered. Kochhar said COAI’s member telcos have successfully deployed the necessary technical solutions and have been technically ready to implement the PE-TM binding process. To ensure a seamless transition and minimise disruption, telcos initiated the PE-TM binding in a logger mode starting November 1, 2024.
“During this phase, traffic was not blocked due to hash mismatches or unregistered chains, allowing TSPs to identify and address failures in collaboration with principal entities and telemarketers,” Kochhar said. In parallel, Jio, Airtel, and Vi also actively engaged with nearly 18,000 telemarketers (including delivery TMs) and over 300,000 principal entities, and stakeholders, to facilitate awareness on the chain registration process, providing guidance on technical changes for hashing functions and addressing other operational requirements, as per COAI’s statement. ETTelecom Published On Dec 11, 2024 at 02:09 PM IST Telegram Facebook Copy Link Be the first one to comment.
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