Trai's 'customer-unfriendly' directive hits small VAS players

Small enterprises that provide value-added services (commonly known as VAS) to mobile telecom service providers are facing hard times. VAS like ring tones, caller tunes, games, entertainment and sports updates are offered to mobile telecom subscribers by their service providers, but are actually created by small VAS providers. 

Over the past few months, revenues of these companies have declined drastically. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had issued a directive in July last year, making it mandatory for mobile telecom service providers to seek explicit permission from subscribers through SMS, email, fax or in writing, within 24 hours of the activation of any VAS, and charge consumers a price only if they confirmed that they wanted such services. 

The regulator clearly laid down that telcos should discontinue such services for consumers if confirmation is not received in the stipulated time for services activated via outbound dialler (a call initiated by service providers) or during a pre-call ring-back announcement. 

The fallout of the new guidelines was that operators refrained from making promotional calls or sending text messages to sell VAS to their subscribers. Although other ways of VAS promotion - like one-liners appearing on the mobile screen and promotions printed on bills - are allowed, the business of VAS providers has been affected.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/2274-trai-s-customer-unfriendly-directive-hits-small-vas-players.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/2274-trai-s-customer-unfriendly-directive-hits-small-vas-players.html