A Big end to the sms menace
EVERYONE HAS faced the irritating SMSes that take up unnecessary space in one's phone memory, and calls that disturbs one on a peaceful Sunday afternoon. Telecommunication companies have tried to curb spam messages and service calls, and nowadays people can bar such numbers but random calls and messages always have a habit of cropping up. Thus, in an attempt to limit these messages further, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has limited the number of SMS messages to 100 per person per day, and this directive will take effect from today.
Millions of mobile phone users will be able to get rid of the menace of unsolicited text messages (SMS) in six weeks when DND (do not disturb) number 1909 becomes operational, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday.
Mobile phone users can opt for not receiving text SMS in seven categories like real estate, credit cards, consumer durables, banking and finance by registering their number in National Do-Not-Call (NDNC) registry by calling or sending SMS to toll-free number 1909, he said in the Rajya Sabha.
"This will be in place in next six weeks," he said during Question Hour, adding users can opt for not receiving messages for any of the seven categories or all of these.
Once a number is registered, the server will block any unsolicited text message if a tele-marketer ties to send it.
"If you register, you would not get those messages," he said.
Short messaging services or SMS has become a way of life with most people in India, and indeed across the world. Students stuck in a boring class, executives in meeting, and even people at home use this service all the time. This habit has been taken advantage of by various mobile network companies who make a lot of money through their SMS packages, as SMS is something that everybody uses.
Nevertheless, if the limitation of 100 SMS is applied then a lot of protests would be heard from different parts of the community. There are businesses who take the help of SMS service to promote their work and the 100 SMS per day would incur losses for them. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) are also not one with this grouse, as they say that on one hand they do want to curb the irritating communications that happen with random messages but on the same time they do not want to hamper the right to communicate of the customers. Keeping this in view they have asked the TRAI to take back the stipulation.
Due to the introduction of new schemes and offers almost every day by every other company to inveigled customers, marketing strategies and tactics become quintessential in heightening the performance of the companies. Ergo, prodigious sums of money are invested in marketing and publicity encompassing extensive amounts of attention and planning to come up with sui generis policies and strategies to give a conspicuous touch to the products. The desperation of the companies touches such a level, that they deploy anything and everything to capture the attention of the consumers.
From investing extravagant money to give advertisements and print hand bills and bill boards to disturbing the customers with annoying calls and text messages, the companies make sure to leave no stone unturned in publicizing the products. Needless to say, this is proving to be quite a menace for those at the receiving ends. Customers are flooded with calls and messages to notify about credit card deals, phone plans, real estate schemes and other offers that, more often than not, have no importance or use to them. While a few genuine notifications are always welcome to keep the customer updated, calling them for trivial issues just for the sake of marketing clearly point out the melancholic idiosyncrasies and unethical motives of the companies.
Accordingly , in order to get rid of these gadflies, I think, in the well-being of the consumers, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India needs to continuously monitor the marketing and publicity activities of the companies and takes necessary action against those complained about by the customers. The gravity of the issue should clearly be discerned and empathized; after all, it’s a matter of ethics, motives and modus operandi of the strategic-marketing industry of the country and the well-being of consumers.
Siddhartha Shankar mishra,
Sambalpur,Orissa,
PH - +919937965779
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