Smaller curb

New Delhi, Nov. 1: The telecom watchdog has doubled to 200 the number of text messages that can be sent from one SIM card a day, giving in to consumer groups and political parties which felt the 100-message limit was too restrictive.

The new cap of 200 text messages kicked in from today.

The previous limit of 100, set by Trai in September to curb pesky commercial messages, had drawn widespread condemnation.

People with hearing impairment, school authorities, college students, teenagers and political parties complained about the ceiling. The watchdog also appeared to have failed to factor in bereaved individuals who may need to reply to more than 100 condolence messages a day. Legal and political battles also started brewing over the ceiling limit of 100.

Industry lobby Cellular Operators’ Association of India had asked regulator Trai to reconsider its move, saying such a ceiling may pose a potential challenge to the “fundamental rights” of ordinary users. “There could be a situation where a customer has exhausted the limit and suddenly some emergency occurs,” the association had said.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya had planned to file a petition before Bombay High Court challenging the move. Aditya said today he had raised the issue with telecom minister Kapil Sibal during a visit to New Delhi last month. “This is a win for the technological freedom of the youth,” Aditya said this evening.

The Congress and the BJP, which have used bulk text messages as a way to reach out to people, also planned to raise the issue with the government through their MPs.

“The authority has received representations from some of the service providers and consumers to increase the limit of 100 SMS per day per SIM. The authority considered these representations and decided to increase the limit of 100 SMS per day per SIMto 200 SMS per day per SIM,” said the telecom regulator in its amendment to the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations.

Trai had already exempted various service providers, including dealers of telecom operators, e-ticketing agencies, those providing directory services like Justdial and social networking sites like Facebook, from the 100-SMS-a-day limit. The exemptions will continue with the new amendment.

“The increase in per day SMS limit is clearly intended at addressing the problems faced by the consumers. In this regard, the increase to 200 is welcome,” said Raj Singh, managing director of 2ergo India, a mobile marketing solutions company.

More spam

Doubts have been expressed whether the new rule will lead to flooding of the mobile inbox with unwanted messages and spam.

Companies sending commercial text messages use servers and message gateways located overseas, over which the Indian regulator does not have any hold, to send marketing text messages.

“In spite of the restrictions put in place by Trai on SMS usage, consumers are still receiving SMSes and the government seems to be helpless,” said Hemant Joshi, partner at Deloitte Haskins and Sells.

However, when it comes to sending marketing messages using a SIM card, Trai’s rules are effective.

“Commercial messages can be sent only by registered telemarketing firms to customers who have registered to accept such messages. The increased limit will not lead to any higher influx of commercial messages,” said Nilangshu Katriar, director telecom at Ernst and Young.

Trai has also imposed a 5 paisa termination charge on mobile operators for commercial text messages originating from their network, which will also deter telemarketing firms from using normal SIM cards to send bulk messages.

Penalty limit

The penalty for violating the text message limit has been set between Rs 25,000 and Rs 2.5 lakh. Telemarketers can also be blacklisted for two years after the sixth instance of violation.

Trai last month said Vodafone had deducted Rs 50,000 from some telemarketers’ security deposit for violating guidelines for pesky calls and SMSes and deposited the amount with the regulator.