Why is it that we always try to kill the goose. Take for example the SMS medium of Advertising. This form has become so annoying and not withstanding the fact that with the huge influx a vast majority does not even bother to read them. A similar case would be that of Telemarketing. These calls have become quite a nuisance. They were effective and affordable medium of advertising at one stage, but like everything else the sheen and bite of this medium has been lost and wasted because of the huge glut.

What is more disturbing is that the lame efforts made by the regulatory bodies to stem this tide and actually be the “regulator”. The DND activation has had little effect and like wild weeds you have more such services sprouting by the day. But this is only a half hearted effort because of the huge stakes involved and no one wants to lose out on this pie more so the telecom companies themselves. This form is a huge revenue generator and why should they block it. Or else why can TRAI not introduce a effective and simple way to allow the consumer the option to choose at a single point with their Service Provider. If I Flag a DND at my Mobile Service Operator level then there is no way I would or could receive any un-warranted SMS or Voice calls through Telemarketing.

Like in the Print Media or even the Audio Visual medium, the Consumer has the right to choose whether to see or read the advertisement, and similar choice should be available in the Mobile Phone as well. TRAI would do much better to think up some better way than to just ask the consumer to “forward SMS to punish pesky marketers”.