Centre bans SMS for post-paid mobile users in J&K

The government on Friday banned short message service for post-paid subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir, while restricting the facility for pre-paid users from midnight, due to security concerns.

The department of telecom has asked all the 12 operators, including state-owned BSNL and other private players like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, to withdraw text message service to their post-paid users in J&K altogether.

"In case of existing post-paid users, the service should be withdrawn immediately," a statement from DoT said.

In case of pre-paid subscribers, the facility has been restricted to 10 SMSs per day, per subscriber.

"SMS messages originated outside J&K service area in India and from the networks of International Long Distance operators should not be delivered to mobile subscribers in J&K service area," the statement said.

The operators have also been asked to immediately stop all tariff packages offering free SMS service.