With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) traceability guidelines about to come into effect on December 1, 2024, the telecom subscribers in the country may face a delay in receiving messages and one-time password (OTP) on their mobile phones. The TRAI’s new traceability rules mandate to track the origin of commercial messages and OTPs in order to restrict fraud, spams and phishing.

All telecom service providers including Reliance Jio, Bharati Airtel, BSNL and Vodafone-Idea will have to comply with the regulatory body’s guidelines and maintain the trail of the origin of such messages or passwords — it includes messages from financial institutions, banks, and e-commerce portals.

TRAI issued the direction in August, mandating the traceability of the trail of messages from senders to recipients. It wants to create a robust and safe ecosystem where online frauds can be reduced. With the growing number of mobile users in India, such initiative may help those who are prone to such malicious intent of cybercriminals.

Typical cyber frauds happen via messages or OTP, and with such mechanism coming in, the identification and filtration would be much easier at the network level.

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During this transition, mobile subscribers could get a delayed OTP or message from December 1. Messages from the non-compliant businesses will be prohibited from the day.