Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) is urging the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to adopt Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) definition on international traffic. As per COAI, this move can potentially boost telcos’ SMS revenues by more than Rs 4 billion annually.
TRAI has prescribed rates for different types of domestic SMSes between 0.2 to 0.5 paisa. However, international SMS rates are under forbearance and telcos charge anywhere between Rs 2-5 for such messages depending on the country of origin. However, TRAI had recently recommended that any incoming application to person (A2P) SMS message shall be treated as an international SMS message, if it cannot be generated, transmitted or received without the use or intervention of any electronic device, computer system or computer application located outside India.
Meanwhile, telcos stated that clarity around international SMSes was much required as there are various entities including leading financial institutions, e-commerce firms, enterprises, cloud platform providers and over-the-top (OTTs), who use A2P messaging channel (through SMS aggregators and telemarketers) without revealing origin of SMS.
