The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday removed the 200 SMS per SIM cap on text messages that are generated by automated machines or sent to it, a move that would provide relief to various service providers.

“The TRAI has received representations from the stakeholders that in view of the limit of 200 SMS per day per SIM, they are not able to send machine-to-machine and person-to-machine SMS which are sent by them to initiate process or application for their operational requirements. The TRAI has duly considered such representations and has excluded all machine-to-machine and person-to-machine messages from the limit of 200 SMS per day per SIM,” the telecom sector regulator said in a statement.

“Such services include providing details of driver or taxi on booking of radio taxi, tentative date of delivery of goods, tentative date of attending complaint, contact details of person attending the complaint etc,” it added.

The regulator has already issued a directive in which it has categorised information sent by a registered company to its employees or agents or its customers pertaining to services or goods to be delivered to such customer as transactional messages. “So a registered company may send information pertaining to services or goods to be delivered to the customer under the transactional message category,” it added.

Notably, as per the new “The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2010” to check pesky telemarketing calls and SMS, that came into force from September 27, 2011, the TRAI barred telecom companies from sending more than 200 SMS a day per SIM. But after representations from various service providers and corporates, the TRAI had to relax its previous directions.