Well not too long ago Airtel had done it and I guess even telecom companies suffer from herd mentality albiet in slow motion. So 4 months after Airtel blocked Mytoday’s free sms service Vodafone has gone ahead and done exactly the same. Reason given? – ‘the service does not comply with the telecom regulations’. Really? and you realised that today? After MyToday has added 3.8 million mobile phone users in the country? And after 4 months of Airtel blocking the service?
VS
Apparently the news report on this story states that Mytoday was informed by value-added service provider Smart Wireless on the fact that Vodafone had blocked Mytoday’s service. I double checked the same by sending an alert to 1000+ sms subscribers of WATBlog via the MyToday service and given that I own vodafone the sms came through and wasn’t blocked. So either the issue has been resolved or Im just lucky.
Update: Rajesh Jain of mytoday clarifies in his post that Vdafone has blocked the ability to subscribe or unsubscribe to the service. So ineffect even if I want to stop alerts from Mytoday. I can’t!
What will it take to change telecom operators attitude?
Either ways this points to the closed garden attitude of the operators. I am a firm believer that for this to change the way the whole telecom scene currently operates needs to change as well. Unlike the internet where the ISP is just a carrier of data and has no say in the content that flows through his pipes here the telecom guys don’t only have a say but can choke the pipe from time to time. What can bring about a drastic change in this is if I can change my pipe without changing my identity. Which according to me can only happen with MNP (Mobile number portability). I have mentioned the same in an earlier post as well.
Though most vas players are upbeat on 3G given the unending delay and the lack of money for the same I doubt if 3G would really make as big an impact in opening this walled garden. I feel when and how MNP is implemented would have a major impact on the value of content players in the telecom scene.
On a sidenote I for one am dying to change my operator without changing my number. Ill be honest. Whether they block or they don’t block Mytoday.. Vodafone Sucks!
Dude ! every operator sucks !
I’m glad i’m not a vodafone subscriber!
Rajiv, the reason that you got the sms being a Vodafone user is because PUSH sms still work. It is just that no one new from Vodafone can get FREE sms updates since the shortcode 575758 is blocked. The users who started the service will still receive the messages. So thats the problem. Vodafone is now preventing any of its users to get MyToday messages because they are FREE. the only other option to get updates is to pay Rs 30 per month per update channel to Vodafone. Another example of Operator Raj in India.
It is better they block calls from other operators also.