March 9, 2021
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has deferred the implementation of its SMS ‘scrubbing’ blockchain system by 7 days. In a press release published on Tuesday, TRAI deferred the implementation of the system after several complaints emerged from Monday morning onward that one-time passcodes (OTP) and other important transactional messages were getting blocked from delivery.
Under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 telcos have created a blockchain system in order to reduce fraudulent SMS deliveries. As part of the implementation of this system, banks, payment companies, government entities and other merchants sending SMS’ had to their customers had to register their specific SMS format with telemarketers and telcos. While the telcos went live with the system on Sunday at midnight, many merchants had not registered leading to OTPs and other messages getting blocked.