New TRAI SMS Rules Result In Disruption Of OTP, Aadhaar Authentication Services

As the new SMS rules by telecom companies were enforced from March 8, 2021, several customers faced complete mobile messaging outage for services such as OTPs from e-commerce companies and banks. People were reported to struggle in receiving one time passwords for bank transfers and while making purchases on e-commerce platforms such as Paytm and several others.

New TRAI SMS Rules Result In Disruption Of OTP, Aadhaar Authentication Services

Also, as per an ET report the Aadhaar authentication for services also suffered. "We are unable to reach authentication service to serve you OTP. Please try again later," said a statement on the official Aadhaar website. This has been faced as the new TRAI's proposed SMS regulation moved into its second phase from Monday (March 8, 2021). Nonetheless, implementation of these regulations caused disruption in banking and e-Commerce OTP services.

Several users took to Twitter to complain about not receiving OTPs while making online payments.

New TRAI Rules

In February 2021, the Delhi High Court ordered TRAI to put into place Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR) that was designed to stop the problem of 'unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) or spam call and messages', as per the Hindu report. The guidelines were enforced such that the use of illicit SMS headers by scammers for cheating customers can be stopped.

SMS headers is a combination of six characters that represent the company name of the message sender. And as per the latest TRAI guidelines, each of the SMS should be verified before it is delivered.

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