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Why Should TRAI Restrict Us?
By siliconindia
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Monday, 26 September 2011, 22:46 IST
Operators are adamant that there will be no major impact on the SMS tariffs due to the ban, but it will be thorny for them given the tight margins that they operate in, which has in recent past lead to increase in prices of call rates and SMSes alike.
"The volumes will definitely take a hit, however it will impact the new players more than the older ones. As SMS revenue are a very small part of the revenue for larger well established players. But then new operators' ability to survive with a price hike is very limited and therefore even they will wait for the larger operators to hike prices," said an executive of a leading telecom operator.
Rajan S Mathew, Director General, Cellular Operator Association of India does not feel there will be a crash on pricing. He said, "All though volumes will definitely take a hit, the cost implication will be very minimal and will not reach the retail subscribers. In fact we have already communicated to the TRAI that this move is not going to be beneficial for anyone in the eco-system as the unscrupulous elements that send out spam massages will end up buying more connection to continue to send these spasm, and only the end consumer will suffer."
Monitoring 3,000 SMSes a month for postpaid subscribers, adhered to or not will be tough for the telecom operators. "In case of prepaid users, you can monitor it on a day-today basis, but for postpaid customers, you will look at the number at the end of the month," said Rajan.
