By IANS,
New Delhi : Telecom operator, Bharti Airtel Monday said it is unlikely to slash its messaging charges as desired by India’s telecom regulator, saying rates in the country are the lowest globally.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently asked mobile operators to voluntarily slash tariffs.
“It is a wrong notion… I have not seen anyone complaining of the high SMS (short messaging service) rates,” Bharti Enterprises CEO and managing director Akhil Gupta told reporters here.
Gupta said the market is very competitive and the prices in the country are perhaps the lowest globally.
On an average, telecom operators earn around 20 paise per SMS.
The average tariff for local calls is Re.1, the same as the local SMS rate, while for long distance calls, the average tariff is Rs.1.50 and the SMS rate is higher at Rs.2.
Operators have resisted the move, as SMS makes up 50 percent of their revenue from the value-added services (VAS).
The situation has become tougher as the average revenue per user has dropped, and VAS revenues remain critical to an operator’s profitability.
However, this is not the first time that TRAI has urged service providers to reduce the SMS cost. The regulatory body had asked operators to slash SMS rates two years ago too.