Bulk SMSes turn into menace

Ashish Joshi, a multinational firm employee, was furious after his return from London recently. He had received a large number of commercial SMSes during his stay there.

Ashish Joshi, a multinational firm employee, was furious after his return from London recently. He had received a large number of commercial SMSes during his stay there. It became a joke and ultimately he had to switch off his phone. None of his colleagues from other countries received any such SMSes.

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Bulk or commercial SMSes have become a big menace in India. It threatens to take away sheen out of the growing telecom revolution that is sweeping across the country.

"It does not seem to matter If people have signed on to national do-not-call directory or not. I have personally signed on it. Still I get dozens of SMSes every day," said Mahesh Uppal, a Delhi based telecom analyst.

"We have been able to do nothing to reduce or stop it. The guilty should be disciplined by the regulator."

Girish Dabral, a sales executive said, "More than 90% of SMS I receive are junk SMS."

On December 1, TRAI announced the "Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010" to keep a check on the unsolicited calls and SMSs.

The new regulations have not yet been implemented as the DoT could not allot the number series for marketing SMSes for more than eight months. It was only last week that the DoT allotted the number series. "Once the new regulations are implemented, the problem of unsolicited SMS will be tackled to a large extent," said JS Sarma, chairman of TRAI.