The end of August could spell disaster for millions of mobile users in India who might see their bank OTPs and delivery OTPs fail. Without OTPs you cannot authorise the payments or pick up your online delivery. This is going to be a nightmare that might happen much sooner than you imagined.
New report claims that after August 31, the mobile operators could have a hard time authorising third-party messages without the revised spam policy from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI.
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Block SMS But Why?
The Economic Times report has mentioned that the new TRAI spam regulations require the telcos to register companies that offer OTPs and vital information while blocking any SMS that you get with URLs and Android app APK files that can be a malware threat. Many people have been caught napping with such SMSs in the country, who inadvertently click these links and enable hackers to access their devices and use data to steal money and other private information.
The telecom body wants to put an end to this but the short term changes might cause a lot of pain and inconvenience as the telcos are supposed to register the services by September 1, or else their messages will be blocked from reaching your number.
How Will The Spam Rule Change Things
The telcos have to assign them a new message template which will be readable and that’s the only way these SMSs will pass through the stringent checks. The details also include URLs and phone numbers that are added in certain services, and if they are not whitelisted, these messages will be blocked by the network.
These headers are usually what you see at the top of an SMS like a subject line for banks, payment operators, and even the likes of Zomato or Uber. The messages will be read using a reliable technology to make sure no commercial message goes through which can be dangerous.
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The issues could also be evident because most telcos are yet to fully integrate these changes and have the services and their templates whitelisted.
According to the report, telcos have requested TRAI for further extension on making these changes, so for all you know, the deadline might be pushed, which means temporary relief for billions of mobile users in the country. Having said that, the report goes on to say that the regulator has offered enough time for these changes and further extension might not happen.
