EXTRA CHARGE

Ranchi, March 16: You heave a sigh of relief each time the SMS delivery report pops up on your cellphone. But that doesn’t come free of cost to BSNL subscribers.

The tariff details available on the BSNL website — www.bsnl.co.in — mentions that subscribers of different plans across the country are charged 10 paise for each delivery report.

Private operators like Reliance and AirTel provide the report free of cost to subscribers in Jharkhand and Bihar, though.

Ashok Singh of Reliance and Sandeepan Ghatak of AirTel confirmed that they do not charge separately for the delivery reports since they have a flat rate for SMS.

Manish Singh of Reliance Infocomm said the whole thing would make the BSNL subscriber feel cheated.

G. Nagendra Nath, general manager (mobile), BSNL, Jharkhand, said the website gives the current tariff.

According to his estimates, millions of SMS are sent every day, which means that the service provider earns about a lakh everyday delivering message status report.

There are about 4.8 lakh BSNL subscribers in Jharkhand alone.

BSNL charges 40 paise to 50 paise for SMS sent to same network within the circle (Bihar and Jharkhand come under the same circle) and 50 paise to Re 1 for SMS sent to other networks or outside the circle.

While roaming within the country, an SMS costs 80 paise to Re 1, but flat 10 paise is charged for delivery reports. International SMS costs Rs 5 each, while SMS sent abroad while in roaming costs Rs 20 each.

An official of BSNL finance wing said SMS delivery reports were never been free. The company charges a nominal amount since it is like another SMS coming to the subscriber, he said.

Most of the BSNL subscribers have discarded the status report option after they came to know that the cellphone operator charges 10 paise each time a delivery report is sent through an SMS.

Kasturi, a BSNL subscriber, said even 10 paise matter to her because she sends five-10 SMSs a day. “I have given thousands of rupees to BSNL unknowingly,” she said.

Sanjay Wadhwa, a chartered accountant unaware of the extra charges, said he would immediately reconfigure the setting of status report option of his handset so that he does not automatically get the delivery reports.

“I was under the impression that it comes for free. I was taking the delivery reports of all SMSs uselessly. But this is bad. When private operators provide the service for free, BSNL should certainly not charge for it,” he said.