On the 13th of this month the two giant operators of India had planned to increase their calling rates by about 20 paise. This would make the revised call rates for calls to same operator numbers increase to Rs. 1.2 compared to its Re. 1 rate. The plan was to be rolled out on Monday, with not many users actually known to the fact. The basic reason behind this was the increasing number of users joining the telecom revolution of India. The company said that with the increase in the users the operators could do nothing but increase the rates.
The hike in the rates was majorly in the prepaid area, with a similar hike in SMS rates for both prepaid and postpaid users. But the TRAI, which is the telecom regulator of India, didn’t find this step appropriate and thus has asked the giants to take back such plans.
TRAI believes that these price hikes are not consumer-friendly and transparent so it has asked the operators to roll back their SMS rates as the first step. If they do not do that, TRAI will enforce the reduction of rates by launching a new consultation process or issuing orders under its regulator act. TRAI has also warned the service providers that if they continue with the price hike then it would intervene further and ensure reduction in premium SMS rates as well for which these operators charge anywhere between Rs. 2 and Rs. 10.
hutch and aircel have strated to charge 5np per sms and they also debiting 1 re daily rent… its very irritating… i have to spend 300 rs for sms i guess
i think airtel s takin 5p per message…. surely it ll irritate the customers…. students are not at all botherin about Rs.1 as rental… if it ll be taken as 5p per msg then they ll change their sim… all students re talkin abt this……