The move to implement the second phase of SMS regulation by telecom companies in India has led to the disruption of crucial services, The Economic Times reported on Monday. People are struggling to get one-time password or OTPs from banks and e-commerce companies for payments, while Aadhaar authentication service has also crashed.
Last month, the Delhi High Court had directed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to strictly ensure that telecom operators enforce regulations to stop the use of unsolicited commercial communication and the use of fake SMS headers to dupe customers. SMS headers are unique IDs through which commercial text messages are sent.
To control SMS frauds, a blockchain-based solution is used by telecom operators to check the header and content of every commercial SMS which comes from a registered source, according to The Economic Times. Meanwhile, unregistered messages are simply blocked.
Defending their system, operators said lax adoption of…