UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) Announces New Anti-Spam Regulatory Policy
Al Ghanim: The new policy will be effective July 2010; consumers will receive messages from their service providers requesting their consent to receive SMS marketing messages.
In line with its strategy to further develop and enhance the performance of the telecommunications sector in the UAE, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued a regulatory policy concerning spam in electronic communications, focusing on spam SMS for marketing purposes. The new policy will be applied on both service providers; Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat) and Emirates Integrated Telecommunications (du).
The Regulatory Policy aims to minimize marketing messages (Spam) sent to the customers without their consent, with a current focus on the mobile SMS. The Policy will be binding to both service providers with instructions to take appropriate measures to fight spam, and to give consumers the choice of receiving such messages or not.
H.E. Mohamed Al Ghanim, Director General of the Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) said: “After receiving many complaints from customers about random marketing SMS messages, the TRA decided to introduce this new policy to curb the annoyance of such messages cause.”
“The Policy will be enforced during July 2010. All consumers will receive messages from their service providers requesting their consent with regards to receiving marketing SMS. Clients will not receive commercial SMS unless they approve it. Approvals are stored and retained either in paper or electronically for later review as per the Policy requirements,” Al Ghanim added.
The policy defines specific timings for sending authorized advertising SMS from 07.00 to 21.00 UAE time. In case customers continue to receive marketing messages without prior approval, they can file complaints to their service providers.
About TRA-UAE:
The Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) was set up by government decree No. 3 of 2003. The TRA is a regulatory body that oversees the telecom sector and the licensees in the UAE in accordance with the terms of Legislative Decree no.3 of 2003, and implements the instructions of the Supreme Committee for Telecommunications.
The TRA is an independent body and its duties include ensuring telecom services are available to all provinces of the country, assuring that the licensed operators fully follow established rules and regulations, protecting the interests of subscribers, developing telecom sector and helping to implement the best and most advanced technologies.
