Aawaara

The unanswered email…[An open letter to TRAI]

Below is an email which I wrote just before the not so good (bordering foolish) TRAI regulations came into effect. The email still remains unanswered, in fact none of the people involved ever acknowledged the email or the problem itself. So I am posting it as an open letter to TRAI.

Mail Sent to:

1. TRAI 
2. A minister related to industries who is young and tech savvy enough to leave his email address on the ministry site
3. A few people in NASSCOM
4. A few people in TIE

Date: Sun, Sep 25, 2011 at 10:13 PM

 
Subject: The ‘Telecom Commercial Communications Regulations’ are a blow to entrepreneurs and the ecosystem.

Dear Sir,

First things first - I too have been a victim of pesky calls and SMSes quite too often and totally agree that something needs to be done about that, but stopping all communication cannot be the solution. You need to distinguish between good communication and bad communication and treating everything the same will create problems for everyone, especially for young entrepreneurs. We already face a lot of problems everyday and this is a serious blow to the fragile ecosystem available to entrepreneurs in India.

Here are some of the problems that I think a lot of entrepreneurs in the web domain will be experiencing due to the new guidelines:

2) The transactional category is fixed and everything else is classified as promotional. We also send messages which are transactional in nature. There may be cases where the user has subscribed and paid for those messages.

4) The identifier will now we a number (unique id) instead of the short code (DM-SERVICE). That means the user does not know from whom the message is coming. Previously a user could delete spam messages without actually reading it, by just looking at the short code. Now one will have to go through all the messages to filter out useful messages from the useless ones.

The regulations completely take away an area to innovate from young entrepreneurs, which I don’t think is fair enough. The counter argument may be that if a user wants such services then he/she can unsubscribe from NCPR, but that is something like inviting spam and the user will not do so. The regulations seem to be squeezing our user base and restricting out thought process. For a normal subscriber it’s a case of - either you get everything or you get nothing, you don’t have the power to choose.

Hoping for a positive response.

TRAIng to get over it!

The TRAI regulations that come into effect from 27th September, 2011 are certainly a blow to me as well as BillBaba.com. Though the regulations may sound foolish, but the bitter truth is that we will have to live with them. I just received an email from my service provider stating the changes:

1) No SMS communication between 9PM-9AM. How do we take care of registrations that happen between this time? Do we send the confirmation code (and other communication) the next day? Has anyone at TRAI heard about ‘User Experience’?I don’t think so after looking at their official websites.

2) There is a pre defined set of transactional sms categories (bank, financial institution, irctc, airlines, educational institutes, DTH), everything else goes into the promotional category. Everything is legal for the transactional folks, and nothing for everyone else. What mission critical information do DTH operators send? Is there a DTH lobby at work here? I heard that the government believes in providing a level playing field to everyone.3) No opt in services. Either you are in a category, or you are not! And if you opt to receive messages of a category you invite all the spam. I thought that that the problem that we were trying to solve here was how to get rid of spam, instead of how to invite spam.

4) The identifier will now we a number (unique id) instead of the short code (DM-BILLBABA). So effectively everything goes marked as spam, and the user will have to read all the messages to separate out the good from the bad. There is no way you can tell the user upfront that the message if from you. Genuine isn’t genuine anymore! It seemed we were trying to save on time here.

Whatever the problem originally was, cutting off all communication cannot be the solution. Yes we all have been bothered by pesky calls and SMSes for too long, and the general sense prevailing may be that the regulations will act as a saviour; but this is a classic case of throwing out the baby with the bath water!

I already heard people complaining about the startup ecosystem in India and here comes another blow. I personally think that the regulations are outrageous and lack common sense. What is everyone else planning to do? I think that a lot of people rely on genuine SMS communication. Anyone going for a PIL or EIL (Entrepreneurs interest litigation) in fact. It’s the ecosystem at stake here!

How are group buying sites dealing with this? Anyone from snapdeal?

Suggested Solution: You ought to differentiate between the different kinds of communication, and cannot regard everything as promotional. Make room for opt in services where you can put the onus of providing auditable information in case of dispute on the service provider.