 "Trai extends deadline for traceability mandate on OTPs to December 1")
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has extended the deadline for implementing a traceability requirement on commercial messages, including one-time passwords (OTPs), to December 1, 2024. This mandate aims to prevent the misuse of messaging services for spam and phishing, according to a report by The Economic Times.
Trai’s decision to extend the deadline followed concerns raised by telecom operators about potential service disruptions. Telecom companies warned that enforcing the traceability rule from November 1 could lead to large-scale message blockages, as many businesses, including banks and telemarketers, are not yet technically prepared for the changes.
New blocking timeline for non-compliant messages
According to the revised schedule, messages that do not comply with the traceability mandate will be blocked from December 1, replacing the previous deadline of November 1. Telecom companies highlighted that this measure is necessary to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of critical messages, such as OTPs since most telemarketers and principal entities (PEs) still need to upgrade their systems, the report said.
Industry estimates indicate that between 1.5 and 1.7 billion commercial messages are sent in India each day, underscoring the potential impact on users if messages were blocked. To prevent major disruptions, telecom operators agreed to send daily status updates to telemarketers and PEs, allowing time for necessary adjustments before the enforcement date.
Trai’s directions on compliance monitoring
Acknowledging requests from telecom operators, Trai instructed carriers to ensure the full declaration of PE-TM (principal entity-telemarketer) chains by all involved parties as soon as possible. Entities failing to comply will receive daily reminders until November 30. From December 1, messages with undefined or mismatched telemarketer chains will be rejected by the system, the report said.
This recent extension is the second granted by Trai regarding industry compliance to curb spam. Previously, the regulator extended the deadline for implementing message whitelisting—requiring businesses to register URLs and callback numbers with telecom operators—until October 1, allowing time for telemarketers and PEs to integrate with telecoms’ blockchain-based Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform.
Trai has implemented various initiatives to ensure a secure telecom environment, including disconnecting over 1.8 million telecom resources and blacklisting more than 800 entities to combat the misuse of headers and message templates. As of October 1, 2024, all telemarketing calls beginning with the "140xx" series have transitioned to the DLT platform for enhanced monitoring.