Cellular cos for 10 paisas add'l charges on text messages

KARACHI - Two leading Mobile phone operators have favoured for imposition of 10 paisas additional charges on all text messages sent to other networks, while two other operators opposed the idea with fifth operator remained somewhat neutral, in a high level industry meeting held at PTA headquarters on Wednesday, a PTA official told The Nation. If approved, this suggestion would make these other-network charges, which are also known as interconnection charges, can bring death to SMS packages, as currently all the mobile operators are allowing as many as 500 text messages a day against Rs. 4 to 5, which will thus become impossible with 10 paisas per SMS charge. Both the operators - Telenor and Mobilink - opined that due to their larger customer-base, they received highest number of text messages from other networks. However, the sources revealed that actual hindrance was network capacity of both these operators. Ufone is opposing the charges, which has somewhat same size of subscriber base as of Telenor which provides truth to this fact that the viewpoint of Telenor was baseless. The SMS facility is widely used and liked by mobile phone subscribers in Pakistan. Some researches consider the low priced SMS as key factor behind the fast growing communication trends in the country. Due to its low price and nature of channel, SMS cannot be replaced by any other mode of communication. SMS lovers were first threatened by the government taxes, which were later on withdrawn by Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani. However, the current regime by cellular operators may put all the SMS packages on halt.