PC: zeenews

It was claimed in many media reports that telecom customers of Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, BSNL, Airtel may stop getting OTP after November 30 or may get delayed OTP because of message traceability starting from December 1. But TRAI has a deadline.

Responding to the news, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has said that this news is not true. “This is factually incorrect. TRAI has mandated access providers to ensure message traceability. It will not delay the delivery of any message,” the regulator said on its official X (formerly Twitter) handle.

On August 20, TRAI had issued directions to access providers to prevent misuse, fraud through messaging. The directions also included regulation to curb suspicious OTPs, for which TRAI had asked telecom companies to provide message traceability.

TRAI had mandated that all messages be traceable from receiver to sender, with the deadline set for November 30, 2024. Any messages with undefined or mismatched telemarketer series will be rejected. TRAI had also ordered all access service providers to migrate telemarketing calls starting from 140 series to online DLT platform by September 30, 2024, for better monitoring and control. Effective September 1, 2024, all access service providers are prohibited from transmitting messages containing URLs, APKs, OTT links or call-back numbers that are not whitelisted by the receiver.