BSNL to reduce SMS charges soon

“BSNL will soon announce its new SMS tariff in line with other competitors,” Kuldeep Goyal, Managing Director of the company said. The new prices will be more competitive and attractive for the customers, he added. 

The BSNL has already reduced its roaming charges. The company is charging 40 paise per minute from post-paid subscribers and 60 paise per minute from pre-paid subscribers for roaming, he said.

Meanwhile, the government-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) on Wednesday reduced the tariff to half a paise per second for calls made within its own network and 1 paise per second for calls made to other networks.

Reliance Communication was the first to reduce SMS charges. The company has already announced a scheme of 1 paise per SMS on buying a monthly voucher worth Rs 11 or by opting for an unlimited SMS plan by paying Re 1 a day.

The current tariff war comes close on the heels of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s efforts to force telecom companies to reduce SMS charges.

Several members of Parliament and consumer groups have pointed out that while companies had reduced voice tariffs significantly over the past couple of months, there was no proportionate cut in SMS charges. At present most of the service providers are charging 40 paise to Re 1 for per SMS.

Earlier, RCOM had slashed roaming tariffs to 50 paise per minute, forcing other service providers to offer similar plans. Bharti Airtel reduced roaming charges to 60-80 paise per minute, while Tata DoCoMo extended their 1 paise per second concept to roaming too.  

Bharti and RCOM introduced their new plans after Tata Teleservices, which recently made a foray into the GSM space, introduced such schemes in June this year. Other operators, including Vodafone Essar and Tata Teleservices still offer roaming at Re 1 per minute.