All major banks, telemarketers yet to register their SMS templates: TRAI

All major banks and telemarketers have failed to register the SMS (short message service) templates and follow other regulatory requirements to avoid scrubbing of their commercial communication to users, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said. Though the Trai would separately notify all these entities, the regulator has asked all principal entities, which use bulk messages to fulfill all regulatory requirements immediately.

“Despite repeated communication, all major banks and big telemarketers sending SMS have failed to fulfill regulatory requirements … Trai has called for further reports from TSPs (telecom service providers),” the telecom regulator said, adding for the time being, all forms of commercial communication via messages will be allowed. On March 8, Trai asked telcos to implement the norms for SMS scrubbing after a delay of nearly 2 years. Services such as OTPs and other commercial communication suffered an outage on the day, prompting the Trai to suspend the norms for seven days.