The move was announced in August 2024.
The new traceability guidelines of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will come into effect on December 1, 2024, to protect consumers from spam and fraudulent messages. It earlier led to concerns about the potential delays in receiving messages and one-time passwords (OTP) on mobile phones.
What are traceability guidelines?
The traceability regulation of TRAI requires the messages sent by telecom companies to be traced to stop the abuse of messaging systems for spam and phishing.
The message must be traced from the sender to the recipient. This includes confirmation of the entire delivery chain for the communications delivered by banks, e-commerce platforms and others. Messages, where the telemarketers' sequence is not traced or does not correspond with records, should be blocked. Further, it requires companies that send promotional messages to provide all the relevant information to the telcos, including the call-back numbers and URLs.
The move was announced in August 2024, while the companies were given time until October 31 to implement the traceability guidelines. The deadline was later extended until November 30 in response to the demands from companies such as Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL.
How it affects OTP delivery
As part of the traceability guidelines, service providers must ensure OTP messages comply with the registered headers and templates.
Earlier, reports suggested the transition to the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) framework may cause delays in the processing of messages and OTPs.
The TRAI has, however, clarified there will be no delay in the delivery of any message.
"TRAI has mandated the Access Providers to ensure message traceability. It will not delay delivery of any message," it said.
Why the traceability guidelines?
The new traceability guidelines aim to create a safer messaging ecosystem for users and curb the spam and fraudulent texts that people get daily.
The temporary delays, in case there are any, are expected to stabilise as more businesses along with the telecom operators start adjusting to the new norms.