SMS charges in India are the only telecom charges which have been immune from the fall witnessed in tariffs across the board. If TRAI had their way then SMS charges would also fall in line with other service charges. WATBlog earlier reported the TRAI’s intention to regulate the inter-connection charges for SMS in India.
The latest report by TOI suggests that TRAI will soon come out with consultation paper in relation to telecom tariffs prevailing in the market. The consultation paper will question the high pricing method applied specially for messaging services by telcos.
Currently the users pay anywhere between 60 paisa to 1 rupee as SMS charges. Although telco’s do offer schemes to provide cheaper SMS tariffs (around 10-15 paisa) but without those add-on packages the message tariffs are almost equal to voice calling charges. At the same time telco’s exclude holidays from add-on packages thus misleading its subscribers regarding higher charges.
Now-a-days major telco’s have started charging around 10 paisa as inter connect charges to their rival operators. Even then the cost of sending a message for an operator comes no more than 11 paisa (10 paisa ICU+1 paisa data transfer charges) despite adding inter-connect charges. The operators are making a killing by charging 6-8 time their cost and brushing aside the market competitiveness.
TRAI’s latest move to seek business logic from telecom operators regarding SMS tariffs is in no way an assault on telecom market dynamics.The consultation paper also makes sense as some operators still charge their old subscribers way above current tariff prices,the problem also needs to be addressed by TRAI.
The downward movement in SMS prices needs to be matched by VAS charges as paying 3 rupees for service message does not make sense when you pay 30 paisa for mobile-to-mobile messages. If SMS prices sees downward pressure then India can truly get ready for some major action in Mobile VAS market.
