A great news for all mobile subscribers, now no more extra charges for sending SMS on Festive and other important days. According to a report from Time of India, Madras High Court has stop/restricted Indian telecom operators from charging extra or high rates for SMS during special occasion or festive days and other important days. This notice came while High court accepting a petition by a lawyer Arunachalam, seeking direction to the companies and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) not to hike the tariff for this period.
In his petition, he clearly contended that mobile companies are attracting and enrolling customers by offering attractive SMS packages like 200 free SMS per day, 1paise to 10 paise per SMS but later forcing customer to pay more by charging extra on SMS tariffs on Festive and other important days ( like Christmas,new year, Onam,Diwali etc). Taking this into account the Madras High Court has issued notices to 10 telecom operators asking to bar such extra charges. Petitioner Arunachalam also sought an interim stay on undue and sudden hike during this December 31 and on NewYear.
Arunachalam said “users were being charged extra at a time when they want to use their mobiles the most, fully violating natural justice and rights given in the Constitution.“
HighCourt has sent notices to TRAI chairperson and Zonal/Regional Managers of 10 telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Tata Docomo, MTS Mobile, BSNL and Videocon. Further hearing will be took place on January 21 2012.
Hon’ble High Court has taken a right decision, as telecom companies are gaining too much revenue through this medium. According to a report previous year SMS revenue of the telecom companies was around Rs 100 crores.
So, now mostly you can start sms sending this new year with you current sms tariff plans without any tension of getting charged extra. Do comment your views on this decision.