TRAI clears confusion on SMS, exempts certain services

New Delhi, Sept 27: Regulator Trai on Tuesday exempted various service providers, including the dealers of telecom operators, e-ticketing agencies and social networking sites, from the new limit of one hundred SMSes per day per SIM, which was imposed to block pesky calls and messages.

On September 5, after much delay, Trai had come out with recommendations to stop pesky calls and text messages from September 27, ordering that no access provider (operators) shall permit the transmission of more than 100 SMSes per day per SIM.

"... Hereby directs all access providers to exclude the following persons from the limit of one hundredSMS per day per SIM -- dealers of the telecom service providers and DTH operators for sending request for electronic recharge on mobile numbers," Trai said in a statement.

The directive from the regulator had come in the wake of concerns raised by telecom lobby COAI on limiting the SMS entitlement per SIM to 100 per day.

It will also exempt e-ticketing agencies for responding to e-ticketing request made by its customers, SMSes from social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, LinkedIn and GooglePlus to their members in connection to activities relating to their accounts, based on verifiable options; and agencies providing directory services, such as Justdial, Zatse, Callezee, Getit and Askme, Trai added.

Earlier, COAI had asked Trai to reconsider its recommendation to limit the number of SMSes per sim to 100 per day, saying that such a regulation may pose a potential challenge to the "fundamental rights" of an ordinary user.

There are several instances where SMSes are an important mode of communication. There could be a situation where a customer has exhausted the limit and suddenly some emergency occurs, COAI had said.

Further, this limit will not also be applicable on "blackout days" (festive occasions), when the customer is free to send as many messages he wants.

In the case of post-paid telephone numbers, the access provider shall not permit more than 3,000 SMSes per SIM per month, the Trai recommendations had said.

However, Trai said, "The access provider shall, before excluding the persons, obtain an undertaking from such person that he shall not use the said facility in any manner for sending commercial communications."

Subscribers have the option of choosing to be under the 'Fully Blocked' category, which is akin to the 'Do Not Call Registry'. If a user selects the 'Partially Blocked' category, he/she will receive SMSes in categories chosen