Is it game over for SMS spam?

The UAE has a problem with text message spamming - a big problem. Anyone with a mobile knows what we are talking about here - text messages advertising everything from fashion sales to nightclubs and spare car parts, sent at all times of the day and night, often multiple times, often in the wrong language, often sent by your own mobile operator.

Now, it looks like some degree of regulation is going to hit the market. It's about time, in fact it is embarassingly overdue. The telecoms regulator today announced a new anti-spam policy, effective immediately, that prohibits sending SMS spam to people who didn't ask for it.


As part of the implementation of the policy, every mobile customer in the UAE should receive an SMS from their mobile provider this month, asking if they are OK with receiving advertising messages. From then on, advertising messages can only be sent to those who reply with a "yes".

The full statement from the TRA can be downloaded by clicking here.

As always, a few caveats:

1) It is not clear from the statement whether this restriction applies only to mobile operators themselves (ie du/Etisalat sending their own ad messages) or whether it applies to all marketers sending promotional stuff via SMS.

2) If it is the first, then this will only put a small dent in the overall problem, because du and Etisalat themselves are responsible for only a small proportion of all advertising messages. If it is the second, it could get very complicated to enforce. Which brings us to...

3) This policy should be judged entirely by its enforcement - and as we have experienced in the past, the TRA has a patchy record of being able to stand up to the mobile operators and force them to alter their practices. According to the statement, a complaint procedure will be established for customers who receive spam against their wishes; who will oversee that procedure? What is the penalty for breaching this policy?

Right now, all we have to go on is a TRA press release - the actual policy itself has yet to be posted to the TRA website. We're trying to get ahold of a copy, and once we do, some of these questions should be easier to answer.