Important Definitions :
Access Providers:includes the Basic Telephone Service
Provider, Cellular Mobile Telephone
Service Provider, Unified Access Service
Provider, Universal Access Service Provider and Virtual
Network
Operator (VNO) as defined in the respective licenses issued by Department of
Telecommunication
Commercial Communication: Means any voice call or message using
telecommunication
services, where the primary purpose is
to inform about or advertise or solicit business for
(A) goods or services; or
(B) a supplier or prospective supplier
of offered goods or services; or
(C) a business or investment
opportunity; or
(D) a provider or prospective provider
of such an opportunity;
Explanation:
For the purposes of this regulation it
is immaterial whether the goods, services, land oropportunity referred to in
the content of the communication exist(s), is/are lawful, or otherwise.
Further, the purpose or intent of the
communication may be inferred from:
(A) The content of the communication in
the message or voice call
(B) The manner in which the content of
message or voice call is presented
(C) The content in the communication
during call back to phone numbers presented orreferred to in the content of
message or voice call; or the content presented at theweb links included in
such communication.
Consent:Means any voluntary permission given by
the customer to sender to receivecommercial communication related to specific
purpose, product or service. Consent may beexplicit or inferred as defined in
these regulations
Consent Template:Means a template of content which is
presented to the customerwhile acquiring his consent and clearly mentions
purpose of the consent and details of sender
Content Template for Transaction:Means a template of content registered
by any senderwith the access provider for sending transactional message,
service message or transactionalvoice call, service call for the purpose of
commercial communication and contains contentwhich may be a combination of
fixed part of content and variable part of content, where
i) fixed part of content is that part of
content which is common across all commercialcommunications sent to different
recipients for same or similar subject;
ii)variable part of content is that part
of content which may vary across commercialcommunications sent to different
recipients for same or similar subject on account ofinformation which is very
specific to the particular transaction for a particular recipient ormay vary on
account of reference to date, time, place or unique reference number
Content Template for Promotion:Means a template of content registered
by any senderwith the access provider for sending promotional message or
promotional voice call for thepurpose of commercial communication and contains
content which is fixed content andcommon across all commercial communications
sent to different recipients for same or similar subject .
Content Template Registrar:is an authorized entity under the
relevant regulations responsiblefor maintaining the Content template register
and Content template registration facility;
Customer Preference Registration
Facility:Means the
facility established by an AccessProvider, under relevant regulations, for the
purpose of registration, modifications or deregistrationof the preference of
its customers in respect of receipt of commercialcommunications;
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) : Means a set of technological solutions
that enables asingle, sequenced, standardized and cryptographically-secured
record of activities to be safelydistributed to, and acted upon, by a network
of varied participants and their
i)
database
can be spread across multiple sites or institutions;
ii)
records
are stored one after the other in a continuous ledger and can only be added
when the participants reach a consensus;
Explicit consent :Means
such consent as has been verified directly from the Recipient in arobust and
verifiable manner and recorded by Consent Registrar as defined under
theseregulations;
Fully blocked :Means
stoppage of all types of commercial communication requiring explicitconsent
except commercial communication sent under inferred consent;
Inferred Consent :Means
any permission that can be reasonably inferred from thecustomer’s conduct or
the Relationship between the Recipient and the Sender;
One Time Password or OTP :Means
an automatically generated random number used toauthenticate the action of user
for a single transaction or session.
Promotional messages:Means
commercial communication message for which the senderhas not taken any explicit
consent from the intended Recipient to send such messages;
Promotional voice call :Means
commercial communication voice call for which the Senderhas nottaken any
explicit consent from the Recipient to make such voice calls to him;
Registered Telemarketer (RTM) :Means
any telemarketer who is registered with the access provider(s) in accordance
with the procedure and conditions specified in these regulations.
Robo Calls :Means
any call made to any customer using an artificial or prerecorded voice
tointeractively deliver a voice message without the involvement of human being
on calling sidefor participating in the dialogue;
Scrubber
:Means an entity registered with the access provider(s) and
authorised by therelevant regulations to perform the function of scrubbing in
accordance with the relevant regulations;
Scrubbing :Means process of comparing target list of
telephone number(s) provided by theSender, to whom it wishes to send commercial
communication with the list of telephonenumber(s) in DL-Preference and
DL-Consent to check whether commercial communication(s)can be sent to the
Recipient as per his registered preference(s) or as per consent;
Sender: In relation to a commercial
communication, means
i)
The
person or entity who owns the telephone number or the header(s) that were used;
ii)
A
person or entity that publicly asserts or uses a Calling Line Identity (CLI) or
the phone
number(s) referred to in the communication, except where such
assertion is fraudulent;
iii)
The
person who sent the message or made a voice call, caused the message to be sent
or
the voice call to be made or authorized the sending of the
message or making of the voice
call;
iv)
The
person or legal entity dealing with goods, or services, or land or property, or
a business
or investment opportunity that is offered or promoted; except
where such entitymaintains a distinct legal identity for the division or line
of business dealing with offeredgoods,services or opportunity, in which case
such division or line of business;
Service message or Service Call:Means
a message sent to a recipient or voice call made to
recipient
either with his consent or using a template registered for the purpose, the
primary
purpose
of which is –
i)
tofacilitate,
complete, or confirm a commercial transaction that the recipient haspreviously
consented to enter into with the sender; or
ii)
to
provide warranty information, product recall information, safety or security
information
with respect to a commercial product or service used or
purchased by the recipient;
to
provide—
(A) notification concerning a change in
the terms or features of; or
(B) notification of a change in the
recipient’s standing or status with respect to; or
(C) at regular periodic intervals, account
balance information or other type of account
statement with respect to, a subscription, membership, account,
loan, or comparable
ongoing; or
(D) commercial relationship involving the
ongoing purchase or use by the recipient of
products or services offered by the sender; or
(E) information directly related to an
employment relationship or related benefit plan in
which the Recipient is currently involved, participating, or
enrolled; or
(F) information relating to delivery of
goods or services, including product updates or
upgrades, that the recipient is entitled to receive under the
terms of a transaction that
the recipient has previously
consented to enter into with the sender
Silent Call : Means any unsolicited call
made by a person or an entity to a customer for a veryshort duration in which
either called party has not yet been alerted by his or her device, or itis very
unlikely to be answered, wherein the intention of caller is to get call back
from calledparty and then enter into commercial communication;
Telemarketer: Means a person or legal
entity engaged in the activity of transmission ordelivery of commercial
communication or scrubbing or aggregation.
Terminating Access Provider” (TAP): Means
the Access Provider of which Recipient ofcommercial communication is a
Subscriber;
Transactional message: Means
a message triggered by a transaction performed by theSubscriber, who is also
the Sender’s customer, provided such a message is sent within thirtyminutes of
the transaction being performed and is directly related to it.
Provided
that the transaction may be a banking transaction, delivery of OTP, purchase
ofgoods or services, etc.
Transactional Voice Call :Means a voice call
which is not promotional in nature and is for the
purpose
of alerts to its own customers or account holders and information to
becommunicated by the voice call is time critical in the nature;
Unregistered Telemarketer (UTM) :Means
any Sender of commercial communication whois not registered for the purpose of
telemarketing with the access provider(s);
Unsolicited commercial communication or UCC: Means
any commercial communicationthat is neither as per the consent nor as per
registered preference(s) of recipient, but shall notinclude:
i)
Any
transactional message or transactional voice call;
ii)
Any
service message or service voice call;
iii)
Any
message or voice calls transmitted on the directions of the Central Government
or the
State Government or bodies established under the Constitution,
when suchcommunication is in Public Interest;
iv)
Any
message or voice calls transmitted by or on the direction of the Authority or
by an
agency
expressly authorized for the purpose by the Authority.
What changed after the implementation of new guidelines?
|
Current Scenario
|
New Regulation
|
Remarks
|
|
|
Customer Consent
|
No
|
Yes
|
Verifiable digital records of all customer opt-ins are
made available on the platform.
Customers can also see all their consents on a single dashboard |
|
Customer Preferences
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Consumers can also select specific day(s) and time band to
block (or) receive.
commercial communication in addition to type of category; viz only DND |
|
Entity/Enterprise Registration
|
No
|
Yes
|
Entity need to register with originating access provider
(OAP) on the platform
|
|
Telemarketer Registration
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Telemarketer should now register with originating access
provider (OAP) and no longer with TRAI
|
|
Header Registration
|
No
|
Yes
|
Entity should register all its SMS Headers and Voice CLIs
on the platform
|
|
Template Registration
|
No
|
Yes
|
Entity should register all its templates (consent &
content) on the platform
|
|
Type of Messages
|
Transactional
Promotional Govt |
Transactional
Promotional Service (Inferred Consent) Service (Explicit Consent) |
Every template should be registered under one of these
classifications: Promotional,Transactional or Service (Implicit or Explicit)
Government messages are classified under Service category |
|
Scrubbing
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Messages will be scrubbed against multiple parameters like
Consent, Preference, Header, Template; and not just DND list
|
|
Complaint Management
|
Yes
|
Yes
|
Telecom operators will now be responsible for complaint
resolution
|
|
Interoperability between telecom Service Providers
|
No
|
Yes
|
Registration details of Entity, Telemarketer, Header,
Template will be shared across the network to ensure seamless view
|
|
100% Traceability
|
No
|
Yes
|
Everything is recorded and shared on the network using
Blockchain technology.
|
Few Ground rules
- Entity/Enterprise
owns the rights of all Headers and Templates.
- A
telemarketer can create Headers and Templates on behalf of an entity if
authorized by Entity through authorization letter but TM does not own
them.
- Every
single Header and Template needs to be registered on the platform via
respective operator
- Anything
that gets registered on the platform will be made available to all other
operators. Register once, access across.
- Every
single message will be scrubbed before delivery.
- Consent
overrides preference. A user with Fully-Block will get a message, if the
consent is given to that entity.
- Entity
need to share one time consent data for migration
- Consent
received from end subscriber has valid for 12 months ( may change as per
TRAI directives)
- Consent
needs renewal after 12 months
Q :Registration Fees : For Telemarketer it is 5 K+50 K
(security) & 5 K per entity however Access Provider/Operator is not
sure if other DLT provider/ Operator will charge the same or not. If TM is
connected with four operator /DLT then will fees will be paid to all or only
first registration. Need clarity
Vcon : If the TM is registered with One entity then the
same registration number will be acceptable to all the TAPs. The fee needs to
be paid only to the first TAP but KYC & Agreement and other document
formalities needs to be done separately. Fees are mentioned below:
a) Entity
Registration : Rs.5000 + GST
b) TM
Registration : Rs.5000 + GST
c)
Entity + TM Registration: Rs.5000 + GST
Q :Sender ID and Template ID related: Sender ID and template will
automatically be synched across DLT platform however TM need to enabled them by
requesting to Other operator with reference ID received from one DLT platform.
This point also could not be clear with respect to TAT/ internal/ external
process between the operator.
Vcon : Header & Template are whitelisted against an
entity ID which flows in the DLT. If the entity gets registered with the second
TAP using the same registration number the whitelisted Header and &
Template will immediately be synched.
Q :For Promotional Campaign : Delivery reports will not be shared
however clarity not shared how campaign summary will be shared in automated
way. As per you the same will visible in DLT Platform, Need clarification
how same will be shared with customers.
Vcon: The Account wise Summary Report will be available
in a similar manner as is being done currently.
Q :Changes for TM in SMS submission: As per Operator we need two additional
parameter i.e. entity ID and Template ID while submitting the messages to
operator , Clarity is not there if same parameter will work with other Provider
or not.
Vcon : The Entity ID and Template IDs will be same across
all Operators
Q :Exiting Data migration / Consent : operator could not clarify us how
existing templates/ sender will be migrated. As per them “This
needs to be validated further and clarity will be shared by end of this month”
Vcon : Consent is still under discussion among the
operators.
Q :
DND Check: As per operator DND check will not be
required at TM side however scrubbing can be done. Complete flow and queries
could not on this.
Vcon : Scrubbing can be done at Operator end only
and Scrubbing as a Service will also be made available .
Q :Sender ID Fees: As per regulation sender ID registration was chargeable
however as per Operator it is waved off for few month. Need details /
confirmation by when they will start this process .
Vcon : No clarity from any operator as to from when it
will be charged.
Q :Optin Related: As per Demo operator will have details
of customer Optin which is currently offline for them as entity do take opt in
in their CRM/website. Need clarification how end entity will pass opt in
details in real time scenario
Vcon: If your referring optin to customer consent then
this will be cleared after the discussion among the TSPs on Consent Mechanism
Q :Changes in regulation: As per operator there are certain
regulation point changed by operator after their internal discussion. We need
all updated points
Vcon : As per our understanding there is no change in the
regulations. All the TAP / OAP process are being drafted around TCCCPR 2018
Q :Migration/ Go live Plan: Operator is still not certain on dates
/ migration plan hence we will not be able to communicate customer further.
Vcon: 1st of March 2019 is implementation date for
Regulation. Now we immediately have to registered TM/Entity on DLT platform and
need to register header/template for subscribing against the preferences.
Q :In present
scenario we send sender id whitelisting request to multiple operators, after
cross checking all the details respective operator rejects or approves the
sender id, but in regulation it’s not clear if a particular sender id gets
approved from 1 of the operator then by default it remain approved by rest of
the operators or not.
Vcon: Sender ID /
Header getting approved / rejected against the Principal Entity will
automatically flow in the DLT.
Q :In present
scenario, enterprise reach out to us directly for template whitelisting, once
done we confirm back to them to send the message. But in regulation if an
enterprise directly gets the template approved, then how will TM come to know
which template is approved for particular enterprise, so that we can also
upload it on our server.
Vcon : Once the entity gets
the Sender ID approved it has to allocate the same to the TM along with the
approval document . TAP will approve the allocation of Header / Sender ID to
the requested TM after validating the approval document. Till the time it is
not approved by TAP , TM can see the Header in the pending status.
Q :What will happen in case customer send
some wrong templates, wrong sender id
Vcon : Will be rejected
Q :Who will maintain blacklisting number
list, also in the span of time TM has some blacklisted database list maintained
by ourself
Vcon : TM to maintain all such list at their end and
ensure that it is not the part of the file uploaded.
Q :Error codes in case of different failure
cases like messages not getting delivered in case they lie in NDNC especially
for promo.
Vcon : No Delivery Status/Error codes will be shared
Q :How MNP data is managed and will it be
shared with us.
Vcon : MNP Data lies with Operator only and is not shared
by us currently also
Q :
How spam management is done
and who will be responsible.
Vcon : SMS Spam Management & UTM calls to be handled
through UCC_Detect Mechanism . Responsibility will lie with the concerned
Principal Entity .
Q :Operator circle data/series is manages
by TM as routing of traffic is done accordingly also this helps in smooth flow
of traffic, also updation of new series/operators happens at our platform, so
what will be the future course of action.
Vcon : Series Data lies with Operator only and is not
shared by us currently also
Q :In case of promo pipe, what will be user type > trans,
trans-receiver or receiver.
Vcon : Only TX as no DLRs to be provided
Q :What will be parameter name of entity
id, pdu parameter sequence and templateid in submit smpdu.
Vcon : Will share post finalization across TSPs
Q :How waiting is handled in case of dlr
not received/Promo or will we get error code for the same.
Vcon: No Delivery Status/Error codes will be shared
Q :What will happen to VIP/Important
personnel numbers as we avoid sending any messages to them.
Vcon : TM to maintain all such list at their end and
ensure
Q :If
a Customer is registered as a Tele Marketer with us by paying Rs 5000 + GST as
registration fee, Does he need to pay registration fee of Rs 5000 + GST with
other operators also? Or Only KYC, Agreement and other documents need to be
given to other operators once registration is completed with first operator
Vcon :Only basic information
will be flowing through DLT , all other documentation needs to be completed
with the new operator. TM registration fee is to be paid only once to the
operator with which TM is getting registered initially.
Q :There
are customers who have registered as TM but not paid Rs 5000/- yet. How can we
identify? Eg: customer ABC had submitted all documents and registered but have
not paid registration fee and security deposit
Vcon : Account will be in
pending state and will be approved only after the relevant fee along with
documentation is completed.
Q :Is
Security Deposit of Rs 50,000 mandatory for all Tele Marketers to pay apart
from Registration fee? As few customers claimed that other operators have not
asked for the same.
Vcon –It is mandatory for all
the operators which is refundable.
Q:Does
Customer have to pay Security Deposit of Rs 50000 with other operators also?
Vcon : Its operator’s call
Q :Does
Entity needs to be registered separately with all operators? Or Only KYC,
Agreement and other documents need to be given to other operators once
registration is completed with first operator
Vcon :Post registration with
one operator an Entity ID gets created, basis this ID entity can get registered
with any other operator post completing their document formalities.
Q :Is
there any Entity registration fee applicable? If Yes than does the Entity needs
to pay registration fee with all operators
Vcon :Entity registration Fee
5000+ 18% GST – 5900, no its one time only
Q :Can
the Customer give request for more than 6 digits Sender ID approval on new
portal for whitelisting.
Vcon : To start with industry
will be going with the old Sender ID limit of 6 digits.
Q :Who
has to approve the sender ID with Telecom Service Provider TM or Entity?
Vcon :Operator will approve
the header.
Q:Is
there a limit for sender ID’s against each entity
Vcon : No.
Q:In
Case of Enterprise Customer who will be buying directly SMS connectivity from
us, he needs to register as a TM only with us by paying Rs 5000/- Registration
fees or even as an Entity? Does he need to pay Rs 50,000/- deposit also?
Vcon : If the enterprise is
intended to send SMS to its customer directly then they have to register both
as entity and TM by payment TM registration fee and security deposit.
Q:Will
there be change in delivery reporting structure with new guideline ( submission/Delivery)
Vcon :Still to be worked upon
Q :In
Case of UCC complaints , will the same process of current opt in’s will be
followed.
Vcon : Yes, in case of any
change will be updated
Q :Is
the old TM licence issued by TRAI valid
Vcon : TM needs to get
registered on the DLT platform and get new TM Licence which will be recognised
by all the operators.
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