Alright, SMS spam has become a case of concern and TRAI’s attempt to control the same has been a massive failure.
As per estimates, close to 150 million marketing messages are sent every day and assuming cost of Rs. 3 paisa/sms, the SMS spam brings around Rs. 200 crore revenues to the operators.
Bharti Airtel has now decided to exit the bulk sms business, citing other priorities as the core reason.
For us, the bulk SMS business case doesn’t stack up against our priority for the customer.
..the consumer must turn activist and raise his voice against this menace. While the number of phone calls have reduced since the Trai issued its regulation against unsolicited commercial communication (UCC), the volume of SMSs has gone up – ToI
The company that leads the sms bulk business is Tata Telservices (60-70% share), though the falling rates (once upon a time, SMS cost used to be 90 paisa or so; and has now come down to 3 paisa/sms) has made the business less attractive for most of the players.
In fact, Airtel earlier proposed to impose a termination charge (of 5 to 10 paisa) on the bulk sms, in order to control the spammers market. And now that Airtel has decided to exit from bulk sms business, will others (Mr. Tata?) give this a serious thought?
Well, a bit of regulation on the usage will help, as bulk sms doesn’t necessarily translates into spam. We sincerely hope this step by Airtel brings sanity to the system.
Bravo Airtel!
What’s your take?
Read: How to block SMS Spam Calls
Recommended Analysis : TRAI’s NDNC for SMS – Not at all SME Friendly?
Update: We edited the article to showcase the pun of Tata/Airtel w.r.t sms business.
+1 for Airtel
What does it say of TRAI?
And I thought Tata was supposed to be the benchmark for companies …
Looks to me like Airtel is quiting this line of business only because of poor profit margins and not customer concern.
I do not think all bulk SMS are always spam. Some regulation is needed but quitting won’t be solution. It is still effective solution for text content delivery in India.
Airtel quitting because of customer concern? Please tell me something that is believable. It is purely because of near zero profits from this arm of their telecom business. I second Fahd on this opinion.
Airtel is just hogging the limelight because they quit at the right time out of a business that has been undergoing scrutiny owing to intrusion of customer privacy and from one which they were earning very little.
A strategic move that will gain them thumbs up. Well thought of though.
Cheers!!!
but the point is, does that move worth it??? as long as marketing sms’s are concerned, they should be sent through NDNC filtration only & if it is so, then I guess no man should have a problem. If someone does not wants to receive sms, they can register themselves to NDNC list. So, if this spamming is to be stopped then marketing sms should be sent only after NDNC filtration & everything is fine after that.
The DND registry is a failure because it is a All or None thing. It does not allow the customer to receive messages only from selected marketers.
For ex: I run a SMS group where any member can join the group and start receiving messages from that group. In this case, the person is expressing explicit consent to receive the messages sent from that group. However, if he is registered with DND, even such desired messages do not reach the user.
Also, sending bulk SMS does not mean that it is always promotional or unsolicited in nature. I used it to send regular updates(non promotional) to my members.
Bharti could have other reasons to exit bulk SMS business. It is true that providers can’t effectively control their clients. Moreover, the price war has taken the prices to below 3 paise. Anyway it is a good move by Bharti and I hope others follow too to control the SMS spam seriously.
This is great marketing move by Airtel.
Bulk SMS is not problem, but it should comes with strict agreements and high penalty for not complying the rule. The main problem is reselling SMS, where the main game played. It is difficult for operators to mark particular SMS is marketing SMS or valid one. I hope TRAI will find solution and delight customer.
Airtel exit, because there is no more profit or low profit in this business. They are not concerned abut Consumers i am sure
Airtel is quiting this line of business only because of poor profit margins and not customer,
thanks to bulk sms
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