The People associated with the SMS world must be aware with the latest policies that are now applicable since October 2012! But those who are not should have an idea about how the SMS service works in the country.

As many marketing companies were engaged in their marketing through SMS & call services which became like harassment to the ordinary people at the certain point who had to attain such calls & SMS every now & then, so in order to give them a little relief, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India brought a new structure for the SMS & Call service in India. Actually, there was certain structure defined from prior only like National Do Not Call Registry, by registering in which will avoid you such unwanted marketing calls & SMS. But the problem was that no one was taking it seriously & neither was it implemented seriously. And so the new policies are defined to implement it seriously!

According to the latest structure, they have divided all such Calls & SMS into 2 categories, PROMOTIONAL & TRANSACTIONAL. But what do these categories mean? Let’s understand it little deeply.

PROMOTIONAL:

The SMS which are sent with the objective of promoting one’s goods or service are mapped as a promotional one. This category includes any sales & marketing messages which may or may not be desired by the recipient. These messages do not get delivered on NDNC (National Do Not Call) registered number. As there is full planning by TRAI to cut off such unwanted calls & SMS, TRAI has also imposed extra 5 Paisa + Service tax on each such promotional call applying the term Operator’s Cost & so the Promotional messages have become costlier than the prior time. This costliness directly affects the marketers & as a result they will shoot messages in lesser proportion which will ultimately help in cutting down such communications.

TRANSACTIONAL:

 These kinds of messages are those which are necessary for the user! In ordinary language it is also termed as Service messages. These messages include the messages which are only passed because the client or user needs that particular message & which do not contain any promotion or marketing. They are purely informatory message.

For example:

1)      Message passed to the bank account holder regarding his available balance in his account or any activity done in his account are called pure transactional message.

2)      Message passed to the client by a company regarding his Invoice amount.etc

This category is allowed to send the messages even to the NDNC registered numbers & that too with a particular Sender ID that falls in fix 6 alphabetical format. But as the messages get delivered to DND numbers as well, some documentary formalities also increases & so the SMS generator have to undergo such legalities.

In such messages, there is a risk that any NDNC registered number user may complain against you about the receipt of message form that particular generator! And in that case, the one who has generated message may have to go through the penalty from the law.

This Penalty has defined structure, as mentioned here: