As per industry sources, telecom operators have unanimously asked the government to compensate them for sending millions of public alerts during disasters and other times. Such messages come under common alerting protocol (CAP), under which the government requires telcos to disseminate messages that give information or create awareness. The messages include those on covid prevention, vaccination and safety precautions. At present, telcos do not charge the government or users for CAP messages.
As per Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) data, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Reliance Jio Infocomm collectively send over 450 million such messages every month. Operators are now calling for tariffs on such messages, for both disaster as well as non-disaster categories.
Typical bulk messaging costs Rs 0.13 – Rs 0.18 per SMS, which includes the SMS termination charge of Rs 0.02 per SMS and promotional SMS termination charge of Rs 0.05 per SMS.
Earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had suggested that carriers can consider cell broadcasts for public alerts. But telecom companies have argued against using it, claiming that it may not be as effective as bulk messaging. Apart from technological challenges, cell broadcasts also require large additional investment.
