2024-08-25 19:51:33
The government has prepared a master plan to thwart spam and banking fraud attempts, under which banking, financial transactions and e-commerce firm messaging will be made foolproof secure from next month. Under this, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has given a deadline of August 31 to telecom companies. After this, such messages will be blocked which are not included in the whitelist.
Its effect will be seen especially on those messages which contain URL, OTT link, APK (Android application package) or call-back number. Also, those mobile calls and messages will be blocked which are not registered with telecom companies like Airtel, Vodafone-Idea, Jio and BSNL. After TRAI’s ultimatum, banks, financial institutions and online platforms will have to register their templates and content with the operator by the deadline of August 31. If this is not done, the message can be blocked. In such a situation, there may be a delay in receiving banking and e-commerce messages in the coming days.
How will the new system work
To understand the new system with an example, most transaction messages from the bank such as fund debit or credit have a call-back number. If a bank does not whitelist the number, such messages will be blacklisted. The government wants all commercial messages to be checked before reaching mobile users, so that spam and fraud can be combated. However, this may cause problems for mobile users for some time. For example, a similar problem had to be faced in March 2021, when the DLT platform was implemented.
Banking and e-commerce messages will be filtered
Currently, banking and e-commerce platforms register their message headers and templates with telecom companies, but telecom companies do not know what messages are being sent from their side. This means that operators do not know what is written in the messages sent to mobile users. What links are included. But from next month, telecom companies will have to create a system through which commercial messages can be read, which will help in blocking those messages that do not match their records.
Telecom companies are asking for extra time
1.5 to 1.7 billion commercial messages are sent daily in India. Its monthly figure is around 55 billion. Telecom companies benefit a lot from banking and commercial messages. But if banking and e-commerce messages are checked by the government, then commercial platforms can shift their messages to OTT apps, where such restrictions do not have any effect. In this case, telecom players Jio, Airtel, Vodafone-Idea are demanding additional time from the government so that the blockchain-based distributed laser technology (DLT) platform can be updated. However, the government is not in a mood to give relief to telecom companies.
Google and Whatsapp will benefit
Experts believe that after the new rule of the government, commercial messages can shift to over-the-top (OTT) platforms like WhatsApp and Google’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging, because TRAI’s new rules do not apply to these platforms. However, banking messages cannot be issued OTT.
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Telecom demanded regulation of OTT apps
Telecom companies have been demanding from the government for a long time that when OTT apps like WhatsApp, Telegram are doing the same work like calling and messaging like telecom companies, then why is one being controlled under the rules. Why does the government control OTT apps? Telecom companies are saying that when the work is the same, then why is the same rule not implemented? However, the government has not commented on this matter.