Airtel blocks Netcore services

Bharti Airtel, the country's top mobile operator, has blocked entrepreneur Rajesh Jain-promoted Netcore Solutions’ free SMS alert service, alleging it does not comply with the telecom regulations.

Netcore provides the service under 'MyToday' brand and caters to over 3.8 million mobile phone users in the country. Jain is the founder of IndiaWorld Communications, a small start-up, which was acquired in 1999 by leading IT company Sify for around Rs 500 crore.

“The telecom service provider has alleged that the services do not comply with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) National Do Not Call (NDNC) regulations and hence it has been blocked. The companies are in discussions to resolve the crisis,” sources close to the development told Business Standard.

Trai had come up with NDNC with the intention to curb unsolicited commercial communication (UCC), which includes unsolicited SMSes, and had even set up a registry. The registry is a database of subscribers with telephone numbers who do not want to receive UCC.

When contacted, Rajesh Jain, managing director of Netcore, confirmed the development. “Airtel has blocked the long codes we use for people to subscribe (9845398453 and 9845298452) because they had received some complaints. We are in discussions with both Bharti Airtel and Trai, and expect the issue to be resolved soon,” he said.

According to Jain, MyToday services are not unsolicited, but are “opt-in” services. This means that a mobile phone user has to subscribe to the service by sending an SMS.

Meanwhile, Jain on his blog has mentioned that Airtel has sought Netcore to scrub MyToday to remove all NDNC-registered users. Bharti Airtel did not respond to multiple e-mails over the issue.

Other alternatives are either get in writing from the 3.8 million subscribers that they want to get MyToday SMS channels, or get Trai to issue a clarification on the NDNC rules.

“I don’t know which is more impossible. I have tried speaking to Trai officials. All they say is that this is an issue between the operator (Airtel) and NetCore,” the blog said.

Bharti Airtel did not respond to multiple e-mails over the issue.