To further clamp down on pesky SMS, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) may impose a termination charge of five paise per SMS on operators from whose networks commercial messages originate.
“We are actively considering and are likely to issue a regulation by October 15 to impose five paise termination charge on commercial SMS, and not on general SMS,” the TRAI Chairman, Mr J. S. Sarma, said.
At present, some operators charge a termination fee of up to 15 paise per SMS, based on mutual agreements, although the same is not compulsory. The proposed TRAI directive would make it mandatory for all operators to charge the termination levy for commercial SMS.
TRAI has exempted select service providers — primarily the dealers of telecom operators, DTH operators, e-ticketing agencies and social networking sites — from the limit of 100 SMS per day per SIM. This new limit has otherwise been stipulated by TRAI to stop the annoying telemarketing calls and messages made to telecom subscribers. It comes into effect from September 27.
Another category of providers let off the hook includes agencies providing directory services such as Justdial, Zatse, Callezee, Getit and Askme.
On September 5, after much delay, TRAI came out with recommendations to stop pesky calls and text messages, directing that no access provider (operators) will permit the transmission of more than 100 SMSs per day per SIM. The limit will not be applicable on “blackout days” (festive occasions), when the customer is free to send as many messages he desires.
Telecom subscribers now have the option of choosing to be under the ‘Fully Blocked' category, which is the more or less the same as the ‘Do Not Call Registry'. In case a user opts for ‘Partially Blocked' category, he or she will receive SMS in only select categories.