The bar on sending not more than five SMS and MMS in a day, which came into effect on Saturday, surprised many people who were not following the Assam issue closely in the newspapers or television channels for the past few days.
According to an official in a private telecom company, many subscribers, particularly students, contacted the call centre and complained that they could not send messages.
“We explained that the bar on the number of SMS was based on a Government of India directive in view of the rumours being spread in connection with the Assam problem. We know that many small businessmen, advertisement firms and others thrive on messages. This will also lead to a huge revenue loss for us ,” he said.
Shankar Narayanan of T. Nagar, who plays football with friends every Sunday, alerts his team on the ground availability the previous evening via SMS. But this Saturday, he tried sending a group SMS to his teammates but it was declined.
Many others suffered similar disappointments. R. Thilaka, a resident of Adyar, said “I send a minimum of 25 text messages daily. I was able to send only four on Saturday. I received a text message from Aircel that I have to retry tomorrow. I had to drop the idea of watching a movie on direct to home service TV as I could not SMS to order for the movie telecast. Calling the service provider otherwise would mean a long process.”
After the fifth SMS from their mobile phones, many subscribers of Aircel received a message from the company, which said: “Due to Government directive, more than 5 SMS per day are blocked. Please retry tomorrow. Anticipate your cooperation…”
The limit on SMS meant making more calls for S. Kishore, who runs an optical store in Anna Nagar. “ I had to call many customers. This was quite a burden and also expensive because I had opted for a free SMS plan,” he said.
Some residents however said that they were relieved that their inboxes were not flooded by bulk business SMSs throughout the day.
The Government directive was however not enforced by a few other service providers. “We have not received any instruction yet in this regard. Since Monday is a holiday, we may get the communication on Tuesday,” an employee of a company said.
Speaking to The Hindu, G. Vijaya, official spokesperson of BSNL Chennai Circle, said that “We have a received a letter regarding the ban from the Directorate of Telecommunication. Subscribers both prepaid and postpaid, will not be able to send more than five SMS texts a day and five MMS messages a day and each not exceeding 25 KB.” The ban will be in effect till September 9.
However, banks, financial institutions and Indian Railways are exempted from the ban.
Keywords: SMS ban, Assam issue
hey guys! we are the youth and we all should support this idea of government. we elsewhere sit at home and say that we will do this and that for our country but we don't get a chance but now we have a golden chance to serve our nation. may be our kind anticipation will help our government to find the accused. and it is very important to find the accused as now it is happening with people related to this case but in future who knows that it can happen with us also. guys chill its just some messages only. if it can help to find the accused then i will be the luckiest to sacrifice my messages for our nations need. so come on people its the time to stand together and help the victims of this whole case. government has taken this decision so we should support them not for the government but for ourselves as it is possible that the next victims can be we the people of this nation. so i request everybody to come and join this movement against wrong as i have done my part. now its your turn.
Why is that people making a big drama for not able to send sms. I am totally unhappy with the congress government but at the same I respect an order from the government which aims at securing the people. Due you think it is shame on the government if a boy is not able to intimate his friends thru sms about the availability of ground. Be sensible guys... By the way, the bar is on sending more than 5 sms per day or the bar is on sending not more than 5 sms per day?
This clearly shows the ignorance on the govt. part w.r.t technology usage. SMS and
MMS are not the only means of mass communication. Poor decision.
Ban on SMS shows the lack of control that a country's government has on its own states. Where did this same government go when the violence broke out? And who told SMS is the only way to spread romours. Government should make the people aware of this violence and punish those against communal harmony. This ban on SMS is just an eye-wash from government. Nothing constructive.
This decision by government showcases poor and worst policymakers in
country. Instead of finding a root cause and solution. They are
troubling each & every citizen. Why cant government solve this problem through sms itself. Still there are many N.E people doesn't know what to do. If those people are confused by threatening sms. why cant government order telecom operators to direct them through hopeful sms and not to believe those stupid sms stating that those are rumors from
other nations.. And can give a warning for threatners and everyone through sms itself...
this is just the height of carelessness.......5 sms per day this is just
bullsh*t.
atleast they should allow 20 sms per day..
They just know how to cause inconvenience to the public.
Instead of finding out from where the rumors are being spread.
They just put a 5 message per day limit on each and every customer of
the Country.
Many businessman, teachers, shopkeeper, and others depends only on
text messages.
Just for some bad people who are spreading the rumors, they are
causing problem to each and every citizen of this country.
I mean this is the height of carelessness. I think Indian Government
should really think over their judgement procedure.
The punishment should not be given to those who haven't done anything.
And if in case they are worried about the rumors, they can be spread
on applications like Blackberry Messenger, Whatsapp messenger, and
many others available.
Then, will they also ban internet services from the mobile phones?
This congress government cannot do anything on ground to prevent communal violence, but all they can do is ban freedom of speech in one garb or another.
This govt. is anti-youth.
Censoring facebook, internet, twitter, earlier 100 sms a day ban, now 5 sms...
Were riots not controlled earlier without such ridiculous diktats ???
I am quotin from your article "To check rumours, bulk SMSs banned" dated
17th Aug 2012, it states:
Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh said that to check rumours, bulk SMSs
and MMSs have been banned for 15 days with immediate effect. No one
would be allowed to send more than 5 SMSs at a time and more than 20 KB
of data through mobile phones.
Now is it 5 SMSs at a time or 5 SMS per day which have been barred?
This is nothing NEW.!! This has happened in the past as well. But hey...
to all telecom firms - - "Better 'Notify' subscribers a day prior to
avoid such nuisance". Many people like me rely on SMS when needs to get
in touch or inform people in bulk. This has disappointed me to the core
as i recharge my number for free sms plan a day before this could start!
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