No OTPs from December as TRAI Implements New Rules to Curb Spam from December 01

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had extended the deadline for the new traceability rules to come into effect from November 1 to December 1. Under this, telecom operators had to implement new standards for tracing commercial messages, especially one-time passwords (OTPs).

Now from December 1, such messages will be blocked which will not comply with the traceability rules.

Major telecom companies including Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Reliance Jio were already worried about the possible disruptions due to this rule. They feared that many telemarketers and businesses, including banks and other companies, would not be ready to comply with these new rules.

In order to stop the abuse of messaging systems for phishing and spam, TRAI’s traceability regulation requires that all messages sent by senders be traceable. The telecom regulator originally requested that the carriers adopt the regulation by October 1, 2024, but that deadline was later moved to November 1 and, now, to December 1.

TARI, keeping this concern in mind, had allowed the process of implementing the rules to be done gradually. Under this, till November 30, telecom companies will send daily warnings to those entities which are not following these traceability rules. After this, messages violating the rules will be blocked from December 1.

This move of TRAI has been taken to control fraudulent activities like spam and phishing. Under this, TRAI has taken steps like blacklisting, disconnecting mobile numbers and transferring telemarketing calls to a blockchain-based platform to enhance security in the sector.