India telcos pressed to tackle pesky SMSes

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has told mobile operators to give their suggestions on tackling the issue of unsolicited spam.

TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar, in an open house discussion with industry groups, told telcos to give him their ideas by Oct. 25, according to a report Thursday by the Business Standard. This includes suggestions over fixing a limit for promotional SMSs, and a technical solution that can be put in place to block such messages and the costing estimates.
"I have a practical problem on my hand and I want practical solution," he said, adding the regulator would otherwise make its own decision.
To address the issue, the regulator has been working on a draft regulation, the "Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference (Tenth Amendment) Regulations, 2012".

This calls for providers to put in place a mechanism to block the delivery of unsolicited SMS with similar signatures from the source, which sends more than a specified number of promotional SMS per hour, according to the article.

The revised regulations are expected to be out by Nov 5.