TRAI's New SMS Regulations, Limits SMS to 100 a Day - Can You Do With 100 Messages a Day

TRAI(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has issued a new directive effective from 27th September 2011 where a users' daily outgoing message limit will be capped to 100. According to TRAI, this has been done to prevent telemarketers to bombard your phone with sales messages. But the big question that arises is can a normal user do with only 100 messages a day. I mean, in India SMSes are more popular than call and served as perfect way to stay in touch with family and friends without taking much of your time. This new rule will definitely cut the amount of SMSes a user used to send before.

According to TRAI, this new rule is customer friendly and users will not have to worry of any sales messages or call. Also, all tele marketing companies will have to register with TRAI for a different series starting with 140 so that a user can easily distinguish between a sales message and an ordinary message. It has only been a day and we can expect a few changes in this rule over the coming days.

Let's take a detailed look at who all will be impacted with this new rule.

• College Students:
  
  College students will be the one deeply affected by this new rule. College students are text maniacs and an average college students do 300-400 sms daily with some college students even crossing the 700 mark. This new rule may come as a shocker to them. Many college students are even planning to get an other number just for the sake of SMS. They believe that TRAI should increase the number of daily SMS as staying connected with their friends is important to them. If you ask college students about this new rule, most students arn't happy with it.
  
  
• Schools and Colleges:
  
  Schools and Colleges who provides regular updates to parents and students through SMS will suffer too. Many colleges and schools rely on SMS to send regular updates as many parents dont have ready access to email and websites. But now it will be hard for them with the new TRAI rule. Many schools have even asked parents not to subscribe to DND as they may use a bulk sms service provider. Also, they are going to take the matter with TRAI to exempt them from this new rule.
  
  
• Traders and Analysts:
  
  This new 100 sms rule will impact many brokers, traders and market analysts. They are known to send frequent messages to their customers and clients with up to date market information. Now they have to go back to the same old traditional calling which will be time and money consuming for them.
  
  
• Journalists:
  
  We asked opinions and views of Journalists on this new rule and most were not happy. They said that on an average we make 200-300 sms a day. Limiting to 100 sms a day will affect our work as we rely on messages for timely updates. To call everytime even for small info is so time consuming.

Update: Telecom minister Kapil Sibal said that messages involving transactions such as messages sent by schools to students, parents, financial institutions, banks, insurance companies, credit cards et al did not fall under this restricted category

So what so you think of this new rule. Are you happy with it or you think it needs some changes. Share your views and opinions in the comment section and also don't forget to share this with your friends and network, they might not be aware of this new rule.