Several consumers around the nation are experiencing a messaging outage that is resulting in a delay in receiving OTPs for payments, Aadhar and even Co-WIN COVID-19 vaccine registration.?
In case you were one of the many who are experiencing this and wondering what really is going on, TRAI is the one behind this -- well, sort of.
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Reported first by TOI, ?TRAI in tandem with telecom companies are implementing new rules for registration and standardisation of customer communication in order to safeguard us against fake and fraudulent SMS messages.?
TRAI¡¯s recent mandate has asked companies, banks, payments companies, government agencies and telemarketing companies to link themselves with telecom operators through the DLT or Distributed Ledger Technology platform.?
The DLT platform enables transparent record management done by the network participants. The main idea behind this to reduce the pesky spam messages that clutter our phones every single day. With this registration, every telemarketer or company that enables telemarketing will be answerable to telecom companies, and by extension, the telecom companies will be answerable to TRAI.
Based on blockchain technology, this also includes registration of messaging templates that they¡¯ll communicate with their customers. To the uninitiated, blockchain technology implements a decentralized distribution chain that can be shared and accessed with anyone at any given time, with any changes being recorded and stored in real-time.?
According to top mobile industry officials in a conversation with TOI, ¡°The measure was taken as per TRAI¡¯s directive. While there were customer outages on Monday as the day started, we are hopeful that these would be sorted out soon as corporates, telemarketers, banks and payment companies and government agencies fall in line with the mandate.¡±
As of now, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio have mandated the standards after Sunday Midnight and many service providers including banks and payment gateways weren¡¯t anticipating this.?
One senior official added that they had already asked banks and other institutions to register at the earliest, but they didn¡¯t adhere to stipulated timelines, ¡°And with the Delhi high court recently seeking implementation of the guidelines, we had no option but to enforce the same.¡± He added that later some relaxations were given to critical transitions like banking and payment services including Aadhar and Co-WIN platform.
The official added that the relaxation was done with the expectation that all necessary registrations will be completed over the next day or two. Failure of complying with this could result in the discontinuation of messaging services.