Recently India Government banned sending bulk SMS, MMS for 15 days in the country, as a step taken after a reports of threatening SMS/MMS being sent to North Eastern students in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hydrabad, Pune and other cities. Which in effect has led to exodus of North Eastern people from certain parts of the country.
Department of Telecommunications (DOT) quickly acted and directed all telecom operators in the country to ban SMS and MMS. The ban that was intended to restrict only Bulk SMS & MMS of more than 5 at a time, but telecom operators restricted individual SMS & MMS also when the count exceeds 5. i.e.; an individual user can’t send more than 5 SMS/MMS per day from their SIM. Here is the circular issued by Ministry of Communication & IT, Department of Telecommunications (Security Wing) –
It has been clearly stated that the restriction only apply for BULK SMS & MMS of more than 5 at a time and not on individual SMS & MMS send. But it seems many telecom operators including both State owned BSNL, MTNL and private operators are restricting SMS & MMS when sending more than 5 per day per SIM.
When trying to send the sixth message, they receive Error notice like “Max limit for SMS reached. NO MORE SMS ALLOWED TODAY – for BSNL Users” or “Hi! You have sent 5 SMSs today. As per Govt guidelines, you can’t send more than 5 SMSs today. Your SMS services will be resumed post midnight.”
This has led to confusion among users and also communication barrier. During this Eid and Onam festive season users are not able to effectively communicate with their friends and relatives. Interestingly this restriction was only applied to prepaid customers in the country.
Here some telecom operators reaction on Twitter on this restriction –
As the restriction still present, we suggest users to use other means to stay connected with your loved ones. Online applications like WhatsApp, Chat ON or Nimbuzz can help you the most.