THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) might have won big acclaim for its moves in curbing pesky SMSes, but it has given a big blow to one of the fastest growing business field - bulk SMS services. TRAI’s decision to impose 5 paise termination charge on commercial SMS had heavily affected the bulk SMS service, which was relayed by small and medium business for advertisements.With the introduction of termination levy, the charge of 2 paise per SMS has gone up to 7 paise. Though introduced to put a curb on spams, the TRAI has tightened its grip on bulk SMS services. “TRAI regulation came into effect on October 25.After this, there had been a 50 percent dip in business,” says Arun T Kurup, operation manager of leading bulk SMS provider MistAllianz. “Small and medium business groups relied on bulk SMS services as it was cheap.Earlier, the advertisements would have reached 1 lakh people at an expense of Rs 2500. But now this had gone up to Rs 7,500. This will cause severe setback to business ventures,” he added.“SBT, one of our clients, had already asked to stop the service owing to the hike in rates,” he said. The curbs on sender ID too has had a negative effect on the industry. The sender IDs such as TM-FLIPKART, LM-MEGASALE will be replaced by alpha-numeric code like TX-655100 or DZ- 567152. Bulk SMS providers feel this would negatively affect the popularity of bulk SMS. When the users can’t exhibit their brand names, it would be less appealing, feel the service providers. The TRAI had also introduced regulations in timing too.SMSes could only be send between 9 am and 9 pm now.“I agree that promotional SMSs had a pesky nature. But these kind of strict regulations will cause much loss to the cheapest form of advertising. TRAI regulations would also not be effective in checking spams. Spams are still being sent by operating through international servers,” Arun said.The regulations of TRAI would mean an end of business to a group of resellers in the bulk SMS industry. Shyju, a reseller in the industry, said uncertainty looms in the industry after TRAI announced its regulations this week. “Only one-fourth of the business is taking place now,” he said.
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