New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday granted a one-month extension to access service providers to comply with its directive on whitelisting of URLs, APKs and OTT links. TRAI had earlier asked major telecom operators in the country to regulate messages containing URLs, OTT links, APK files and phone numbers unless they are whitelisted by September 1.
The measure is aimed at reducing the amount of spam and phishing attempts by fraudsters trying to trick users using the SMS service. The telecom regulator has ordered all access providers to provide the authority with an updated status of the measures taken within 15 days and a compliance report within 30 days from the date of issuance of this order.
The revised directive requires all access providers to ensure that traffic containing non-whitelisted URLs, APKs and OTT links is not allowed from October 1. “This measure is aimed at curbing misuse of content headers and templates, ensuring a safer and more efficient telecom ecosystem. Further, keeping in view the issues raised by access providers, the revised timeline for implementation of call back numbers will be fixed separately,” TRAI said.
On August 20, the Centre directed access service providers to take concrete measures to curb misuse of messaging services, with effect from September 1. All access service providers would be prohibited from transmitting messages containing URLs, APKs, OTT links or callback numbers that were not on the whitelist of the senders.
To prevent misuse of templates for promotional content, TRAI has introduced punitive measures in case of non-compliance. “Content templates registered in the wrong category will be blacklisted and repeated violations will lead to suspension of the sender’s services for one month,” the government said. The telecom regulator said the revocation of the sender’s traffic will be done only after the sender has taken legal action against such misuse.
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