While over 3,000 registered senders have complied with Trai’s requirement by whitelisting more than 70,000 links, many are yet to comply with the order, days before the mandatory norms are set to go into effect from October 1, Trai officials said. As a result, the order may be postponed yet again by 30 days, Trai officials indicated to Business Standard on Wednesday.
The telecom regulator had mandated the whitelisting, or registration, of internet links, Android application packages (APKs), and call-back numbers sent through text messages, by September 1, which was extended by a month. A URL is essentially the link for a website, or the address of a unique resource on the internet, while an APK is an executable file that contains all the data needed to install and run an Android app.
On Thursday, Trai again asked the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCOR), which includes the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), various sector regulators, and government agencies, to implement the mandatory whitelisting by October 1.
The decision is expected to have a major impact on curbing spam and potential frauds, given that many users unknowingly click on links that act as phishing tools for data hackers. However, it has also sparked concerns that customers of banks, financial institutions, and e-commerce companies may face interruptions in receiving service and transactional messages, especially One-Time Passwords (OTPs).
At present, the telcos get the headers and the templates from the businesses. However, now they will also require the content to be submitted. This will then be verified by the telcos and only then will it be sent to the customers.
First Published: Sep 26 2024 | 7:08 PM IST
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