RCom launches SMS tariff war

Reliance Communications on Friday introduced one paise per SMS for both GSM and CDMA customers, triggering a war of tariffs on data services from voice calls.

RCom, the Anil Ambanicompany, introduced two plans on Friday — one paisa per SMS plan with a monthly rental of Rs 11 and the unlimited SMS plan which a Reliance Mobile subscriber can get on a daily deduction of Re 1 per day from their prepaid balance.

Recently, the telecom minister, Mr A. Raja, had asked operators to cut SMS charges, which at present vary from 40 paise to Re 1.

The new SMS tariff plans are add-on plans and are ap-plicable for all Reliance Mobile customers for both CDMA and GSM networks as well as prepaid and postpaid customers.

“SMS continues to grow every year. Indians are usi-ng SMS as a mode of communication to keep in touch with friends and family. On account of significant tariff disparity in the recent months, it has lost its share of attention. RCom with this initiative, aims to revitalise SMS usage in the country,” the Reliance Communications president, Mr Mahesh Prasad, said.

“With this initiative, we are aiming at gaining new acquisitions from high SMS usage groups of the GSM community such as young professionals and the youth across India,” he added.

Voice call rates touched rock bottom with the introduction of per second billing by telecom firms.