100 SMSes a day cap again imposed

V

In a fresh bid to curb unwanted text messages spanning sauna belt to apartments, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday announced new measures, including hiking the tariff for sending over 100SMSs a day and an easier system to lodge complaints.

Although it decided against levying a penalty that it had proposed earlier, officials said the proposal had not been given up yet. But the immediate focus is on SMSs sent from phones that account for a bulk of pesky promotions. Trai said within a fortnight, telecom firms must ensure that anyone crossing the 100 SMS mark a day would have to pay at least 50 paise more for every subsequent message.

Stating that Trai had adopted a "zero tolerance" approach towards pesky messages, a senior official said, "This menace will not be tolerated. This is the first of the many measures we plan to take."

The new guidelines—the tenth amendment to the rules on commercial communication or unwanted messages—propose to crack down on messages sent using software applications. Within three months, telecom operators have been asked to put in place a system that blocks messages with same or similar characters. The proposed mechanism will ensure that at best 200 messages with "similar signature" are sent in an hour. Once this limit is breached, the service provider can block it.

"We have arrived at the figure of 100 SMSs after a lot of consultation process," the Trai official said, adding that ordinary phone users will not be impacted by the measure. "Our analysis shows that on an average, a person sends two SMSs a day and 47 in a month. The limit we have prescribed is much beyond this." In any case, registered telemarketers, banks and airlines will be exempted from the new rule.

A senior official said the aim now is to control cheap bulk SMS packs. Currently, mobile service providers offer concessional SMS packs and tariff plans for bulk SMS users. "These SMS packs and tariff plans are being misused by unregistered telemarketers to send promotional SMSs to consumers. To prevent unregistered telemarketers from misusing such SMS packs or tariff plans for sending bulk promotional SMSs, a price restraint has been placed," Trai said.

In addition, the system of lodging complaints has also been eased with consumers required to merely forward the pesky message. Telecom operators have also been asked to put in place web-and email-based mechanisms to enable subscribers to lodge complaints. The regulator clarified that the measure would "in no way" put a cap on the number of SMSs one can send in a day as those beyond 100 can be sent at non-concessional rates.

"Whenever a new customer is enrolled for service, the access provider is required to take an undertaking from such customer in the Customer Acquisition Form that he shall not use the connection for telemarketing purpose and in case he does so, such connection shall be liable to be disconnected," Trai said in a statement.

Source

100 SMS/Day is more than enough, unless you're (not OP) a forward-freak! :lol:

V

^^ Agreed.
For general communication it is more than enough.
I generally prefer talking over texting, though use SMS as and when required.
But I know of many friends who send those good morning/afternoon/evening/night messages 4 times a day! :facepalm:

Those are surely going to make a hue and cry over this.

Bu what flabbergasted me is how the TRAI came up with that average of 2 SMS per day. Everywhere I look, I see people texting.

R

Sad news

Again sad news. I'm sure TRAI didn't covered youths on their Survey. In general a youth (school and college guys) send around 200 SMS / day.

M

krishnandu.sarkar said:
Again sad news. I'm sure TRAI didn't covered youths on their Survey. In general a youth (school and college guys) send around 200 SMS / day.

even though what you are saying is correct(that many young guys send so many sms) but if a person is sending that many SMS he/she is actually addicted.This will be good solution for addiction if it is actually implemented
From what i have read in newspaper this limit is not for normal users(ie only for unregistered telemarketers) .Also there is no actual "limit". after 100 sms person will have to pay money for sending sms.

Vignesh B said:
Bu what flabbergasted me is how the TRAI came up with that average of 2 SMS per day. Everywhere I look, I see people texting.

I think total mobile usage is India is about 70-80 % of total population(about 800 million).as we interact more with young people we might think that everybody is sending so many messages.but i guess most of the users dont really use test message that much like People who are working(mostly),senior citizens,our parents etc..

krishnandu.sarkar said:
Again sad news. I'm sure TRAI didn't covered youths on their Survey. In general a youth (school and college guys) send around 200 SMS / day.

^legit, this is also an unsafe move, what if disaster strikes after the limit

mastervk said:
even though what you are saying is correct(that many young guys send so many sms) but if a person is sending that many SMS he/she is actually addicted.

whaat? nope. what about over messenger.... say whatsapp, or kik, then these limits are easily reached... why is it addiction with sms?

V

mastervk said:
Also there is no actual "limit". after 100 sms person will have to pay money for sending sms.

The "actual" limit is at 200 SMS. After that you can't send anymore when you reach that limit.

mastervk said:
I think total mobile usage is India is about 70-80 % of total population(about 800 million).as we interact more with young people we might think that everybody is sending so many messages.but i guess most of the users dont really use test message that much like People who are working(mostly),senior citizens,our parents etc..

Perhaps you are right to an extent. But still TRAI should have taken the entire demographic into consideration for the "survey".

Anorion said:
^legit, this is also an unsafe move, what if disaster strikes after the limit

krishnandu.sarkar said:
Again sad news. I'm sure TRAI didn't covered youths on their Survey. In general a youth (school and college guys) send around 200 SMS / day.

Perhaps what TRAI can do is to remove the 200 SMS maximum limit. Let them keep this pay after 100 SMS thing if they really think it will thwart the unregistered telemarketers.

Again 200SMS/day is a golden duck for telemarketers.
I wonder, apart from College/school guys who needs more than 200 per day?

M

Vignesh B said:
The "actual" limit is at 200 SMS. After that you can't send anymore when you reach that limit.

Not sure about even 200 sms limit.Earlier it was implemented but now this restriction is over.If 200 message limit was available then TRAI would not have

N

SMS is needed, better to implement law to punish the guilty.

Its like dont go out accident will happen rather than punishing the traffic law violators !!

When present telecom infrastructure can provide unlimited SMS, then why stopping by not punishing the guilty and making the needed suffer ??

I couldn't be more happy with the new! I wish it comes down to 70 SMS per day.I had prefer losing option of sending more than 70 SMS a day rather than getting pesky SMS from telemarketers.

And about those emergency situations i feel calling directly makes for immediate action rather than SMS. Even when you are driving doesn't your hand reach for that mobile when the SMS tone beeps only to have astrology products thrown at you. What do we do then....we fall into the habbit of ignoring the SMS.See when it comes to 50 SMS each sms would be treated with thought and that will help in emergency.

freshseasons said:
IAnd about those emergency situations i feel calling directly makes for immediate action rather than SMS. Even when you are driving doesn't your hand reach for that mobile when the SMS tone beeps only to have astrology products thrown at you. What do we do then....we fall into the habbit of ignoring the SMS.See when it comes to 50 SMS each sms would be treated with thought and that will help in emergency.

Well said, freshseasons.

The only people who would really be affected by this would be people who have speech problem (they communicate via SMS only) . rest of the guys.. please move to GRPS/3G

If a person prefers texting it doesn't mean that he/she has a speech problem.

mastervk said:
even though what you are saying is correct(that many young guys send so many sms) but if a person is sending that many SMS he/she is actually addicted.This will be good solution for addiction if it is actually implemented

I don't agree that this is addiction. There are many practical problems in that age, and that is the reason they use SMS as their medium of chatting.

Like on first stage, a school or college students doesn't get enough pocket money (except those rich guys) to recharge their phone for calling and use bonus call rate cutter.

Then, in those stage of life, almost no family accepts their children getting into a relationship (specially for girls) in India, so they choose SMS as their medium for chatting instead of calling

Well, these points matters, specially in India.

Again there are points like age, like in their age, they chat with friends more than us (incoming people). We only contact our friends in say on weekends and on some special time, but it's never like a school and college guys.

Hope these points are correct.

RCuber said:
The only people who would really be affected by this would be people who have speech problem (they communicate via SMS only) . rest of the guys.. please move to GRPS/3G

Not everyone has smart phone. Not everyone has computer.

In INDIA, there are many peoples who managed to get a basic Nokia phone after begging enough to their parents.

To my knowledge, its the working-citizens who get targeted MOSTLY by the telemarketers with their "BUY THIS" ads. Because, they're the ones who can actually buy the product. When compared to the ratio of College/school guys, the probability of targeting/buying is very very low.

We just have to think nuisance at a broader level, Please don't limit yourself to a certain group.

Moreover, its easy to acquire a group of numbers if the SIM-card representative sells CUG-based SIMs to a corporate. In general, the corporate SIMs mobile numbers will be consecutive. It will start like 98765 11111, 11112, 11113 and ends like 98765 20000. So, the telemarketers will safely target their ADS to this working community rather than the consecutive numbers (usual people) scattered across the states.

I honestly think these kids are more comfortable chatting than calling, donno what reason, maybe lecture is going on or they dont want others to overhear, whatever, its awesome that they are comfortable with this medium from the start itself, dont see anything wrong in it at all
point is its just another medium as posted two posts above, just like air and voice, we have a different kind of air and text
im imagining a kidnapping, earthquakes, bomb blasts, but these are thankfully rare, but even regular occurrences such as a floods, you might want to send messages to a few people in the phonebook saying you are perfectly safe
sms is a way of communicating with a large number of people, and this has it's advantages, telemarketers are not the only ones doing this, sure there are many phone chains out there for whatever reasons, these _random_ rules don't help... one common scenario that everyone will eventually run into is being part of a coll fast. boom 200 messages a day easy. telemarketers should be allowed or disallowed, or the dnd list should work, as against restricting general, legit usage with arbitrary restrictions, why 200? why not 2? or 2000? the number makes no sense, because there is no uniform usage scenario... for an entire year you might not send a single sms at all but that one day you might need to send out 201

^^I agree.

I just wanna ask

The new guidelines—the tenth amendment to the rules on commercial communication or unwanted messages—propose to crack down on messages sent using software applications. Within three months, telecom operators have been asked to put in place a system that blocks messages with same or similar characters.

If I send my girlfriend I lov u or M sorry SMS 3 times, will I gonna filter my SMSes ? And what blocking similar characters ? They are now going to sensor SMS. People we are loosing our freedom at slow pace.

I agree with Anorion. Sometime I send a lot, many time not even 2.

M

bubusam13 said:
I just wanna ask

If I send my girlfriend I lov u or M sorry SMS 3 times, will I gonna filter my SMSes ? And what blocking similar characters ? They are now going to sensor SMS. People we are loosing our freedom at slow pace.

I agree with Anorion. Sometime I send a lot, many time not even 2.

If some filters like this is actually implemented you will got a good excuse not to repeat your message .You can hope you have an understanding GF who does not want repeat messages

bubusam13 said:
If I send my girlfriend I lov u or M sorry SMS 3 times, will I gonna filter my SMSes ? And what blocking similar characters ? They are now going to sensor SMS. People we are loosing our freedom at slow pace.

I agree with Anorion. Sometime I send a lot, many time not even 2.

Desperate and needy.

Once is okay man.

Okay, leave GF.

I send someone a phone number "8672538263". Ok. Due to some reason he dont receive that SMS. So I forward the same SMS again. But is this system is implemented, my second SMS will be filtered.

Case 2.
I send a SMS "START QUIZ" to a number suppose "8972987338". But I dont get any acknowledgement. So I again sent the same sms to the same number. In this case I can't even edit that SMS coz "START QUIZ" is the format that server will recognise. So this system will filter my second SMS due to similar characters.

hey this is like you cannot send multiple sms with the same thing to diff people also...
so basically you are not allowed to send "happy diwali" or "happy new year" to everyone in the phonebook

Then its more worst.... So should I write 200+ different SMSes for 200+ different people at these times. Developers here in TDF, pls develop a mobile app that can add a " . " after each sms like
(1 st sms)Happy Diwali,
(2nd SMS)Happy Diwali. ,
(3rd SMS)Happy Diwali ..

Someone start a petition please, in change.com

V

bubusam13 said:
Okay, leave GF.

I send someone a phone number "8672538263". Ok. Due to some reason he dont receive that SMS. So I forward the same SMS again. But is this system is implemented, my second SMS will be filtered.

Case 2.
I send a SMS "START QUIZ" to a number suppose "8972987338". But I dont get any acknowledgement. So I again sent the same sms to the same number. In this case I can't even edit that SMS coz "START QUIZ" is the format that server will recognise. So this system will filter my second SMS due to similar characters.

Anorion said:
hey this is like you cannot send multiple sms with the same thing to diff people also...
so basically you are not allowed to send "happy diwali" or "happy new year" to everyone in the phonebook

bubusam13 said:
Then its more worst.... So should I write 200+ different SMSes for 200+ different people at these times. Developers here in TDF, pls develop a mobile app that can add a " . " after each sms like
(1 st sms)Happy Diwali,
(2nd SMS)Happy Diwali. ,
(3rd SMS)Happy Diwali ..

That means no more forward messages also :-?

Doesn't sound very nice.

theserpent said:
Someone start a petition please, in change.com

Are you sure about the website?

Ok. Those 'buddha' guys don't even have social life or try to understand the meaning of it. :facepalm:

Those buddhas when young doesnot have mobile phones. So they can't understand it. Moreover most older generations are reserved type and does not welcome new ideas. Thelcom companies are looting people, they assure to provide 7.2 mbps data link and we hardly get 256 kbps in most areas, they falsely activate services and deduct money, TRAI is not doing anything about that. The whole point seems that SMS are a fast means of communication and in recent IAC and many other occasions, they have proved to spread people's voices fast. So the Govt is trying to tie the knot on SMS.

Those buddhas when young doesnot have mobile phones. So they can't understand it. Moreover most older generations are reserved type and does not welcome new ideas. Thelcom companies are looting people, they assure to provide 7.2 mbps data link and we hardly get 256 kbps in most areas, they falsely activate services and deduct money, TRAI is not doing anything about that. The whole point seems that SMS are a fast means of communication and in recent IAC and many other occasions, they have proved to spread people's voices fast. So the Govt is trying to tie the knot on SMS.

100 SMS daily is OK but the forward thingy is very lame

again sad news

Gearbox said:
100 SMS/Day is more than enough, unless you're (not OP) a forward-freak!

Chatting to one person itself takes minimum 100!!! Think about my phonebook of 700+ contacts in which minimum 10 are contact in a day

100 sms per day is more than enough. I wonder why people(Read as : Texting Addicts) are whining about this

CommanderShawnzer said:
100 sms per day is more than enough. I wonder why people(Read as : Texting Addicts) are whining about this

Texting = Cheap communication medium

Well, I personally do not send messages unless very necessary - anyone worth sending a message to is worth giving a call. And its easier on the fingers too. The only reason for this obsession with messages is keeping it low cost - but then again becomes to justify since most of the texting crowd keeps very expensive cellphones.

SMS Channels are temporarily paused due to rise in bulk SMS costs. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Directory: SMS Channels

N

SMS was a very effective way of communication. Also when they made it free with one time free, it was really a welcome news for todays generation where information needs to flow and flow fast.

It's just another digital way of talking.

Decisions makers (politicians) wont be bothered till the lobbiest (business men) wont push them. Lobbiest people wont bother till their revenue generation is effected.

Let those systems be in place, people will look for other means, ways and once they find few to replace this present system of their choice of communication, things would be back in place.

Above is just my personal view given on the situation, this is not directed to any person of any community, just my understanding, which I accept, may be wrong.

G

LPG - Capped
SMS- Capped
Internet-Capped
Freedom of speech -Capped

Really India is Kela Repblic. :evil:

It doesn't bother me at all.

R

I dont remember when I have sent more than 50 messages a day ... 100 messages a day is adequate.

However there must be some web-site where we can register complaint on the numbers from which we get this annoying messages.

:shock:

With almost everyone on Whatsapp these days, 100 SMS/day is adequate.

Yup just like kdroid said,last year when this Rule was implemeneted, almost everyone started using Whatsapp and nimbuzz.
And spending Rs 50/year for whatsapp is not much

KDroid said:
With almost everyone on Whatsapp these days, 100 SMS/day is adequate.

What I dont like about whatsapp is i cannot exit it. As a result if i dont have a pocket net blnc my main blnc gets deducted. :/
A friend of mine has a way of blocking whatsapp on his Nokia C6 phone. He has NetQin installed and manually "blocks" Whatsapp whenever he doesnt have pocket net blnc. But i cannot download NetQin on my N79 phone. The "region" on its site doesnt have India (or china). Weird. :/

^^ +1.
Once,I turned off my "mobile data" and slept
Over the night whats app turned mobile data on( I dint have a internet pack also), and had about 100 messages in in(due to a group chat) and cause of this lame thing more than 50 bucks got deducted

BTW.. I got a SMS from my GSM provider that special prices are valid for first 100 SMS /day and rest will be Re. 1/SMS local, Re. 1.5 STD and Rs 5 on ISD...so this would mean one can still send more than 100 SMS/day .. only that it will be more expensive.

just like FUP. Good job.

Another year , we will have 1gb limit on internet

Allu Azad said:
Another year , we will have 1gb limit on internet

You mean by Mid-2013, as Govt promised?
I see another scam on the rise.!!