Telecom Regulatory Authority of India , TRAI, has asked the mobile operators to give their suggestions on tackling the menace of pesky messages by 25th of this month. Addressing a function in New Delhi, TRAI Chairman Rahul Khullar said the operators to come with suggestions regarding fixing limit for promotional SMSs, technical solution that can be put in place to block such messages and the cost involved in it. The telecom regulator has also drafted a Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference (Tenth Amendment) Regulations – 2012 in this regard and after getting suggestion from different stakeholders the revised regulations are expected to be out by first week of next month.

The draft regulation 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. It proposes disconnection of resources of entities for whom the promotion is being carried out after ten violations.

The draft regulation proposes that operators take an undertaking from consumers, at the time of purchase, that the SIM purchased shall not be used for telemarketing purpose. The draft proposes to help consumers lodge complaints of such communication by sending an SMS to 1909.