This is important for the VAS companies sending out SMS’: The TRAI has mandated mobile operators prefix a service provider and service area code in order to allow the authority to track unsolicited SMS’. Thus, an SMS received from the Hard Rock Café in Mumbai, if sent via Vodafore, will have to be displayed as VM-Hardrock. This is in order to help crack down on alphanumeric SMS’, the source of which was difficult to track. The deadline for the change has been set for Feb 2009, since the SMSCs that Reliance Communications and Reliance Telecom have, will have to be upgraded. Download the notification here.
I’ve been received unsolicited messages from the Hard Rock Café, after I’d given my number there to book a table, and MeraMobi, after I’d downloaded its app to try it out for a story.
All these notifications are steps in the right direction, but there really is no update on what the TRAI is doing about the DNC complaints. I’ve made several complaints since signing up over a year ago, and over the past four months, I’ve received no updates or calls from my service provider (Airtel) on what has been done regarding the complaints, despite calling up and requesting an update. Are mobile operators being held accountable the TRAI?
In the final quarter of the financial year, the Insurance companies will up the ante, and the unsolicit call problems will resurface…so who is eventually accountable? It’s not as if the DNC hasn’t helped, but it is still not very effective.
Do take a look at our list of Short Code Services in India
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6 Comments until now.
Telcos are not at all serious about DNC. I have made many complaints. On followup I was told they have been settled. I asked how they have been settled they dont have a reply. They simply say that you will not receive further calls. And guess what not a single day goes by without me receiving atleast 2 calls. Trai should appoint some other nodal agency to receive and act on complaints. Telcos are not doing it
True story:
When I had lodged a DNC complaint with Vodafone, they forwarded my complaint and my number to MTNL because the called had a MTNL phone line.
MTNL then disconnected that phone line. Instead of just charging them a fee.
And then, MTNL gave my number to the company whose line they cut – letting them know who complained – when they inquired.
Needless to say, I received a lot more time wasting calls after that – and have since then stopped lodging DNC complaints.
True story:
When I had lodged a DNC complaint with Vodafone, they forwarded my complaint and my number to MTNL because the caller had a MTNL phone line.
MTNL then disconnected that phone line. Instead of just charging them a fee.
And then, MTNL gave my number to the company whose line they cut – letting them know who complained – when they inquired.
Needless to say, I received a lot more time wasting calls after that – and have since then stopped lodging DNC complaints.
Ok, here’s the other side of the story:
Our service – Zook – has an sms based search that is interactive, and needs users to “reply” to the resopnses they get for further interaction/refinements/actions.
TRAI usually takes a unidimensional and short term view of the industry, bucketing all kinds of services together. While the service is user initiated, there are responses we send later to users – though only as a response to their queries and requests. These directives will essentially mean we cannot send with our number as the senderid, and our users will not be able to just hit “reply” to interact on SMS. This is pretty much a killer for progress in services of this nature – expecting users to create a new message and key in the number yet again is optimistic.
Honestly, this is a case of punishing all for the mistakes of a few. Overarching regulation is usually limiting for new ideas, products, services.
Re-read the notification – it does seem to apply ONLY to alphanumeric senderids – so I guess we’re ok for now :) I sure hope it stays this way, since we’ve been hearing about directives to the contrary from some players.
Thanks for the feedback Nikhil.
We send alerts to users to remind them about important events and our services.
Any customer who does not wish to recieve messages from us, can mail to care@meramobi.com.
We have been regularly communicating this to all our users.