Sms May Cost More If Players Agree On New Levy

[abhay 0]

SMS may cost more if players agree on new levy

The cellular industry has split ranks over a new revenue earning proposal to levy an SMS termination charge under discussion within the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI).

If the proposal sails through, mobile subscribers could be burdened with an additional charge of 15 paise per SMS. Mobile operators currently charge between 50 paise and Rs 1.50 per SMS. SMS charges are bound to shoot up as mobile companies are likely to pass on the charge to the subscribers. The industry is currently discussing a charge of 50% of mobile termination charge as SMS termination fee. Currently, mobile termination charge stands at 30 paise per minute.

SMSes travel on signaling channels and not voice traffic channels. Only a few operators like BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance and VSNL have proprietory signaling channels. As a result, standalone operators like Hutchison, Spice and Aircel are not in favour of levying any charges for SMS termination as this would put them at a disadvantage since they do not have their own signaling network.

Mobile operators which do not have their own signalling network use BSNL network which charges Rs 25 per subscriber per month for national roaming subscribers. There is no charge on intra-circle SMSes.

Industry sources said the idea was mooted at the CEO meet of COAI where it was pointed out by integrated operators that SMS termination is an international feature and a nominal charge should be levied in India too. It is practised in countries like UK, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and Ireland. The charges in these countries vary from 20-50% of the mobile termination charges.

Operators opposing the move state there’s no logic in levying SMS termination charge. Further, they fear that if any such charge comes into force, it may give rise to a demand from NLDOs to charge carriage fee SMS traffic also, which is not being paid at present. Carriage charge for mobile calls has a ceiling of 65 paise per minute.

Meanwhile, integrated operators maintain that some operators come out with bulk SMS sending schemes << hehe guess who has such a plan << at very low rates, so payment of termination charges is justified.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_st...ntent_id=126010

[ani_meher 42]

But reliance is already having one of the - if not THE - costliest SMS charges (regular ones, not talking abt the 180 card). How much further will it increase???

[petar 15]

Reliance is not one of the costliest. Not in Mumbai atleast.

[linuxguy 0]

Hutch is surely costly. I dont use SMS much but their offers ****. My friend uses Hutch in Karnatak and he has this awesome offer where he just pays 30 bucks rental and gets 3000SMSes free! And here we are...paying 50p per SMS for on net traffic while 1Re for offnet :/ that too local!

[@ksh@T 20]

what the ehell will happen to 180 card now.....