Govt ban on bulk SMS impacts businesses

BANGALORE, INDIA: The ban on bulk short messages service (SMS) and MMS from the telecom authority is leading to huge losses to many businesses which are associated with bulk SMS and MMS directly and indirectly.

There are many big as well as small companies that provide services through SMS. By definition, bulk SMS is the process of sending thousands of SMSes instantly. In this case the sender can customize the ID and the Web-based user accounts. Unfortunately going by this definition, not many companies fall in the league.

Raju Vanapala, CEO, WAY2SMS.com, said that the businesses have been heavily impacted. Operating since September 2007, WAY2SMS is a provides of free SMS. It has around 12 million registered users. “With the ban that spans for more than a week, roughly 3 million users have been impacted. It would take a while to bring that traffic back; however, given the credibility and the service, customers would come back to us.”

He added that on an average 60-70 million SMSes are sent through WAY2SMS in 10 days. Services like bulk SMS are part of corporate services, which is a small part of what WAY2SMS does, while their overall business is towards engaging the customers to use the platform for sending their personal SMS.

He suggested that the government should provide a clearer guideline on what kind of services should be banned. “The decision of government is definitely for the national security and concern. A ban/check is welcome for promotional and community SMS but it is ultimately barring the personal and transactional SMS service,” he added.

VVS Mani, CEO and founder of Just Dial said, “Just Dial disseminates information by SMS to callers. It not only saves times but also improves our efficiency and reduces human error. Technically we should not fall under bulk SMS because the message is sent only when callers request. Our productivity is badly affected by the blanket ban. Having said that, we respect the government’s decision and are abiding by it.”

Agrees Abhijeet Saxena of Netcore, that the ban of SMS are impacting the businesses. Netcore offers MyToday Dailies, direct-to-consumer subscription service. According to the company, MyToday delivers over 350 million SMS each month for over 11 million subscriptions across 50 channels.