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PTA needs to Stop SMS Spamming

Ghazala on 7, Feb 2012 | 9 Comments | in Category: Insight

Ghazala

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Daily, many mobile phone users in Pakistan receive promotional messages from different sources. Their inbox is constantly flooded with such messages and they don’t have an option to stop receiving these messages. These promotional messages are an addition to the fraudulent text messages and calls the users receive. The telecom sector is one of the most profitable sectors in Pakistan. Despite this, cellular companies and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has not done anything substantial to solve this problem.

The first cellular company in Pakistan was launched in 1995. The real boom in the cellular sector came in 2004-05 when the trend of owning a mobile phone became a must for every citizen. Availability of low cost mobiles and service provider SIM’s made it possible for every section of the society to own a mobile phone. Since then there has been a steady growth in the number of cell phone users. Today according to PTA statistics over 62 percent of Pakistani citizens use cell phones as it is a cheap and convenient way of communication, specially the short messaging service (SMS). All these benefits although, have brought in some demerits as well which still haunt cell phone users. Criminals have begun to deceive people by the use of fake calls and SMS. Many simple persons have fallen victim to their evil traps and have suffered monetary losses. PTA and network providers have only delivered public service messages and not carry out any practical steps to stop and apprehend such criminals.

Today there is an increase in marketing through the short messaging service (SMS). People are often sent messages which they don’t want to receive. This is known as Spam. Since everyone has a cell phone, SMS marketing has become a very cheap and effective method of marketing for many businesses. Software’s are available in the market which can be used to send thousands of text messages for a few hundred rupees in a couple of seconds. This sort of marketing is much cheaper than placing ads in newspapers or TV channels. Receivers of such messages don’t have a choice of not receiving such messages and this has become a very serious problem. Similarly phone calls are made at random to promote a particular product.

Many private educational institutes in Lahore use SMS spamming to promote the release of their new batches. They send the messages to all the numbers they are able to retrieve from different databases. Quite often users give their cell numbers to websites and at education expos and other programs. Somehow these lists containing thousands of cell phone numbers of potential customers reach the hands of spammers. PTA started a service through which users can report SMS spamming by sending a SMS at 9000 with certain details. This service doesn’t seem to work and is quite complicated. You can keep trying but are to end up with an error message each time.

PTA needs to stop SMS spamming. They need to develop a mechanism through which users can easily report and prompt action can be taken immediately. Now PTA has started allotting names instead of numbers through which SMS are sent. Mostly these names are used for spamming and thus PTA should ensure that these are not used for spamming before allotting a name to someone. Cellular companies should also develop their systems to detect the spammers and block their connections. Similarly governments should ensure the privacy of the users so that the spammers don’t get bulk of numbers to whom they can send their promotional messages.

Annually PTA and cellular companies earn millions of dollars from cell phone users in Pakistan. They ought to take care of their users and should not leave them at the mercy of spammers who don’t have any morality to stop doing so themselves. Cell phone users especially the youth need to be vocal about this issue and should raise their voices about this on the social media forum. In Pakistan the government will only take action when citizens build up pressure against it. Media should also take notice of the issue and urge the PTA to stop SMS spamming.

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