The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India have implemented a new regulation ” The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010” on 1st December 2010. With the new regulation in force the telemarketers registration has started from 15th January, 2011 and Customer preference registrations has started from 10th February 2011. Regulations would be effective from 21st March, 2011.
TRAI have come to notice that parents of students of many schools are in panic that they will miss critical messages from school if registered on National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). As such, large number of parents are de-registering from NCPR even if it means exposure to Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) and SMS. In this regard it is clarified that TRAI has already made adequate provisions in “The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010” to facilitate various categories to send the transactional messages. Educational institutes are also included in these categories to send transactional SMS to parents/guardians of their students.
Following information belonging to various categories are covered under transactional messages:
- information sent to its customer(s) by the Bank or financial institution or insurance company or credit card company or Access Provider pertaining to the account of that customer
- information given by Airlines or Indian Railways or its authorized agencies to its passengers regarding travel
schedules, ticket booking and reservation - information from a registered educational institution to parents or guardians of its students
This means all messages from registered education institutes to their parents / guardians will be sent even if such parents are registered with NCPR. As such, these messages will not be restricted in the prescribed time window of 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM and can be sent at any time.