The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today discussed a proposal to impose five paisa as termination charge for transactional or promotional short message services (SMS) and two paisa for normal SMS on operators from whose networks commercial SMS originates.
The issue was discussed between the regulator and CEOs of top telecom operators today.
It also discussed the idea of permitting telcos who will now have to mandatorily offer roaming free to subscribers to charge through a “special tariff voucher” from customers. Under this for instance subscribers have to pay a certain upfront charge every month to avail free roaming across the country.
In simple term it means that subscribers effectively will not be roaming free. However they would be paying especially if they are regular roamers much less than what they were doing earlier as the current charges are based on each call.
The meeting was attended by representatives from Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Videocon among others.
When contacted, Trai officials did not want to comment on the issues.
At present, some operators charge a termination fee of up to 10 paise per SMS based on mutual agreements, although the same is not compulsory, according to industry sources. The termination charges were kept higher to restrict unsolicited SMS from unregistered tele-marketers, said the source.
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The issue was discussed between the regulator and CEOs of top telecom operators today.
It also discussed the idea of permitting telcos who will now have to mandatorily offer roaming free to subscribers to charge through a “special tariff voucher” from customers. Under this for instance subscribers have to pay a certain upfront charge every month to avail free roaming across the country.
In simple term it means that subscribers effectively will not be roaming free. However they would be paying especially if they are regular roamers much less than what they were doing earlier as the current charges are based on each call.
The meeting was attended by representatives from Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Videocon among others.
When contacted, Trai officials did not want to comment on the issues.
At present, some operators charge a termination fee of up to 10 paise per SMS based on mutual agreements, although the same is not compulsory, according to industry sources. The termination charges were kept higher to restrict unsolicited SMS from unregistered tele-marketers, said the source.
Read More