The Department of Telecommunications amended telco permits, mandating them to use network equipment only from “trusted sources” from June 15. The departments move is seen as Indias first official step to keep both the Chinese companies out of Indias telecom expansion, including 5G technology rollouts.
SMSes and OTPs were not coming or received for a host of digital payments after telecom companies implemented a new set of Trai s regulations for commercial text messages.
Several services such as net banking, credit card payments, e-commerce services, Aadhaar authentication and even Co-WIN registrations were disrupted on Monday as SMSes and OTPs failed to arrive after telecom companies implemented a new set of regulations for commercial text messages, according to a report in
Economic Times. Out of one billion average daily commercial SMS deliveries, around 40 per cent of traffic was disrupted till Monday evening. The failure rate was over 25 per cent among the leading private and public sector banks. Officials at payments companies and banks, among others, blamed telcos for faulty implementation of the new system to check spam messages.
Telcos blamed companies and government bodies for lax adoption, saying they had failed to register sender ids and content on the blockchain platforms of telcos, which in turn triggered the high failure rate.
India s new SMS scrubber breaks OTP services and causes disruption to digital payment apps
Source: Pexels
Unlike most of the world, India still relies heavily on One Time Passwords (OTPs) to authenticate online transactions, sign in to website and pay bills. While this system provides an additional security layer, it also relies on several different network operators and SMS.
Yesterday, it all came to a halt as India implemented a new SMS verification system. The new system is based on Blockchain s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and it forces telemarketers to register themselves beforehand. The telemarketers can then use pre-approved templates to compose marketing messages. These messages are then scrubbed by telecom operators and delivered to users who have given their consent to receive marketing messages. The new system was developed to reduce spam messages that are delivered to users around the country.