Monthly mobile phone bills for users on the move could soar as short messaging service roaming charges have gone up considerably.
Cellular service providers have levied a 15 per cent surcharge on airtime and SMS. As a result, customers are shelling out anywhere between 22 paise and 45 paise extra on each SMS.
A direct marketing associate of a global systems for mobile operator said the surcharge came into effect early this year, without it being made public.
"The surcharge has gone up from 8 per cent to 15 per cent as per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India guidelines. This has resulted in the SMS roaming charge going up across networks," the executive said.
SMS is a major contributing component to the average revenue per user. An executive with a GSM operator said, "The effective price hike is just 10 to 20 paise, depending upon the network partner across the country.
"There was always an 8 per cent surcharge on roaming airtime, SMS as well as public switched telephone network charges. Trai recently withdrew the surcharge on PSTN and increased the surcharge to 15 per cent on airtime and SMS effective January 2003.
"So, in short, the effective hike is another 7-8 per cent on the SMS charges of last year."
"However SMS sent or received in the home network is charged far lower than that on the roaming platform," the executive added.
Explaining the surcharge levied, an executive with a DMA said the charge for an SMS that was sent from one network and ended at another network in another state was earlier Rs 1.49.
With an 8 per cent surcharge, the price became Rs 1.61. This has now gone up to Rs 1.71 per SMS, though the price varies from operator to operator and from circle to circle.
Similarly, a SMS roaming priced by Bharti Cellular in Kolkata or Chennai at Rs 3 will now attract a 15 per cent surcharge, resulting in the total airtime and SMS charge going up to Rs 3.45 per SMS.
However, with the withdrawal of any surcharge on PSTN, the charge on the latter has gone down by 10 paise to Rs 1.20.
With effective from January 4, standard trunk dialling rates have also been reduced to Rs 2.99 per minute depending on the networks for all mobile to mobile calls. These rates do not include networks on wireless limited mobility.
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