Earlier this year in April TRAI had reduced the ceiling tariff for roaming Pan India. This had mandated all operators to reduce the call and SMS tariffs while the subscriber was in national roaming. This applied to both calling as well as SMS tariffs and applied only for national roaming, while having no impact on the base tariffs for the home circle.
In certain cases sending an SMS from the home circle without an STV was actually costlier than doing so during roaming. Sending a local SMS in roaming now costs 25p while the base tariff for local SMS in home circle is Re.1 and sending a national SMS during roaming costs 38p while the base tariff for national SMS in home circle is Rs.1.5
MTS has taken the initiative to end this bizarre pricing pattern and slashed its SMS rates in all 9 circles where it currently operates. MTS now charges 25p for local and 38p for national SMS while in home circle. This step comes in as a relief at a time when the popularity of SMS STVs has reduced due the coming up of IM and VoIP apps like whatsapp and viber. We are hoping to see the larger Pan India operators also following in the footsteps of MTS and revising the Base tariff for SMS sent while in home circle.
