TRAI and RBI Launch Digital Consent Pilot for SMS Promotions
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has announced the commencement of a new pilot initiative aimed at digitizing and standardizing consent for promotional communications. Under the joint initiative with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), select customers will start receiving SMS notifications from their respective Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) shortly. This pilot involves nine TSPs and eleven major banks, allowing a limited number of customers to manage, review, and revoke prior consents for promotional messages.
With this initiative, TRAI seeks to overcome long-standing issues associated with legacy consent practices. The aim is to test a unified digital consent platform and assess its readiness before it is rolled out nationwide. Current regulations under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) of 2018 permit consumers to block promotional calls and messages but also allow them to selectively permit communications from specific businesses. However, the cumbersome onboarding of old, paper-based consents into a digital framework has hindered effective implementation.
Transparent Consumer Empowerment
To enhance transparency in consent practices, TRAI, together with RBI, is piloting the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) program. This program aims to offer consumers a simple interface for managing their consents and ensuring that promotional communications cease if consents are revoked. Under this pilot, nine TSPs and participating banks, including major institutions like SBI, ICICI Bank, and HDFC Bank, have successfully completed the technological integration required for the trial.
As the pilot progresses, customers whose previous consents have been uploaded may receive SMS alerts from the short code 127000, sent by their TSPs. The notifications will be limited to a small subset of users whose consents have been transferred to the new digital platform. Customers who do not receive these messages should not worry, as the pilot is intentionally scoped for select participants and is a precursor to a larger rollout.
How Customers Can Manage Their Consents
Each SMS notification will include an advisory message and a secure link directing users to their TSP’s Consent Management Page. This page enables customers to view transferred consents from the eleven participating banks associated with their mobile numbers. They can choose to keep, modify, or revoke any of these consents at their discretion. Importantly, no personal or financial data will be required at any point, and customers are advised to respond only to messages from the 127000 code. Engagement with these SMS communications is optional, but customers seeking to alter their consent preferences can easily do so through the provided portal.
This initiative marks a significant step toward modernizing consent management in India, aiming for clearer, more accessible practices for consumers in promotional communications.
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