A friend told me I should have been careful about operating in the SMS business, and weighed the risk factors carefully. I thought about that statement. In today’s business age, one considers competition and other such factors. That a regulator and government will arbitrarily change rules to destroy an industry – what does that tell … Continue reading TRAI’s SMS Licence Raj – Part 5
All of this is being done under the guise of countering telemarketing and providing for a spam-free SMS inbox for consumers. Why stop there? Why not have ad-free newspapers and TV programmes? Slap surcharges all over the place to make life better for consumers. And who decides what is good for the consumers and for … Continue reading TRAI’s SMS Licence Raj – Part 4
A day before Diwali, TRAI changed some rules yet again and slapped a 5 paise surcharge on promotional SMSes. Effective immediately. No notice period whatsoever. A 5 paise surcharge where the average price is in the region of 2.5 paise is a crushing blow to the industry. The result was a trebling or in some … Continue reading TRAI’s SMS Licence Raj – Part 3
In the past month, the actions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India have systematically put hurdles for the businesses of most companies in the field of SMS platform provisioning and digital marketing. This is reminiscent of the past when the government could make or break a company’s fortunes. It started with the NCPR regulations … Continue reading TRAI’s SMS Licence Raj – Part 2
I used to wonder what the 1970s and 1980s would have been like for many Indian businesses. India was then under the licence permit quota raj. The government had the power to make or break any business. A single rule passed by a bureaucrat could hand over a market to a competitor – or if … Continue reading TRAI’s SMS Licence Raj – Part 1
Following a tradition from 2008, 2009 and 2010, in this last week of the year, I am giving links to what I think where some of my better posts. I have categorised them into five topics: Digital India, Entrepreneurship, Politics, Personal and General. Digital India Netcore’s Business (Nov) Presentation at eGov Conference (Oct) TRAI’s SMS … Continue reading Best of 2011: Digital India
You must be logged in to post a comment.