The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has hiked the SMS termination charges to 2 paise per SMS for normal SMS and 5 paise per SMS on each transactional SMS on operators from whom the SMS originates. TRAI also notes that transactional SMS origination from government organizations have been excluded from these new regulations and that these new charges will be applicable from June 1, 2013. Currently, only promotional SMS are charged termination cost of 5 paise per SMS. After the new regulations are implemented, termination charges will be applicable to transactional, normal and promotional SMS. TRAI hopes that these hiked termination charges will help to curb the pesky SMS spam, which continue to be a major problem even after the imposition of the SMS Spam Guidelines. Why TSPs want termination charge on SMS? According to the TRAI statement, telecom service providers (TSP) had noted that smaller operators are selling bulk SMS to telemarketers at cheap rates and that the revenues earned by them are primarily based on the large number of transactional and promotional SMS to subscribers of other networks without having to pay to terminating TSPs. Following the new regulations, operators will be able to earn from smaller operators for normal, promotional and transactional SMS providing a balance. Besides this, the amendment to 'The Telecom Commercial Customer Preference Regulations, 2010' also includes blacklisting of telemarketers from whom unsolicited commercial calls (UCC) emerge. Blacklisted telemarketers will not receive any telecom resources from access provider. TRAI also notes that it will collect name and address…
