TRAI New Order: TRAI has asked telecom operators to re-verify all registered headers and message templates on the DLT platform.
TRAI Guidelines: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is taking major steps to prevent misuse of header and message templates as well as methods used for cyber-fraud. TRAI has asked telecom operators to re-verify all registered headers and message templates on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform. Along with this, instructions have been given to block all unverified headers within 30 days and message templates within 60 days.
Along with this, mobile companies have also been asked to ensure that temporary headers are deactivated immediately after the given time.
Government’s strict action
DoT conducted analysis on AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) entities sending SMS through Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform on header and message templates. Government took action on 20000 PEs and removed 30000 headers and 1.97 lakh templates. Has been removed.
Guidelines for mobile companies
According to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), more than 28,000 cases of misuse of header and content templates have been reported. It is mandatory for mobile companies to take action against abuse by blacklisting header and content templates. In case of repeated incidents, mobile companies blacklist public entities (PEs) or telemarketers.
Millions of headers and templates deactivated till now
Since 2019, more than 20 telemarketers, around 500 PEs, more than 3000 SMS phishing sending headers and more than 40000 content templates have been blacklisted. Apart from this, mobile companies have temporarily deactivated about 4 lakh headers and more than 11 lakh content templates, following the instructions of TRAI.
