| Premium SMS are those sent to, for example, vote for your favourite contestant in a talent hunt or on who is the biggest super star in the country. |
| In a letter to all mobile operators, Trai say, "It is felt that the charges on premium SMS are high and bear no relationship with the cost and nature of services rendered. We hope telecom operators will voluntarily reduce the charges of these SMS and the authority henceforth would closely monitor the trends." |
| Trai has also asked operators and content providers to include a clause publicising the tariff applicable for such SMS. The premium SMS charges should also be on short code SMS numbers. |
| SMS charges for competition programmes vary from Rs 3 to Rs 10 and for some premium messages they are as high as Rs 35. SMS revenues make up over 6 per cent of the total telecom revenues. |
| "We are aware of the notice and will do the needful," T V Ramachandran, director general, Cellular Operator Association of India, said. |
| S C Khanna, Secretary general, Association of United Telecom Service Providers of India, points out: "These rates are determined by competition and Trai has given us forberance". |
| The regulator, however, felt there will be no termination charges for SMS and operators will have the forbearance on interconnection usage charges (IUC) as charges will continue for the present. |
| Certain sections say traffic imbalance of SMS is insignificant and does not call for an intervention, with the present system of "Keep and Bill" being seen as practical. In most countries, SMS termination charges are not regulated, and in cases where it is, it is with mutual agreement with operators. |
| Also, the regulation would require installing or upgrading the billing system for the inter-operator settlement which will affect the capital expenditure of operators. This will, therefore, make it disappropriate to termination charges. |
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