TRAI halts SMS scrubbing for seven days following disruption

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has ordered the temporary suspension of part of its regulations on unsolicited commercial communications following reports of widespread disruption to critical services. As part of the TRAI’s 2018 Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), operators implemented a so-called ‘content scrubbing’ functionality that requires telcos to verify SMS content with a registered template before delivering the message. The TRAI’s order notes that some ‘principal entities’ had not fulfilled the requirements set out by the regulations and, as such, their SMS were being dropped following the implementation of the content scrubbing service earlier this week. To protect consumers, the regulator ordered providers to suspend the scrubbing of SMS for seven days, to enable companies to register the template of SMS and prevent further disruptions.