Changed rates for sms on Diwali: Money minting idea

By Natraj Muthukrishnan on 17 October, 2009, 12:35 pm

What can be called a new way of money minting is the charges mobile operators charge during the festive season. For instance, the sms which is free for a connection as per the plan is charged 50 paise per sms for Airtel, 25 paise per sms for Vodaphone and Re.1 for the recently launched Tata Indicom for a single sms sent on the diwali day.

With market flooding with discounts and/or offers from all quaters, this rather comes as a surprise. This goes in tune with the poilcy of all business doers to attract new customers but neglecting the old customers. Starting from housing loan to a mobile operation, it is the same policy everywhere. The reason the operators say is that this would help to balance the peak network load which is expected during the festive season. And this does not happen only for Diwali but for New year, Christmas and many local festivals and also Valentine day and Friendship day.

The only silver lining in this whole thing is that the customer is informed a day in advance of the new rates applicable for the festive day. So, it is upto the customers to make it an advanced or belated wish or to shell out some extra bucks from the pocket if he/she wants to be bang on wishing.

Nevertheless, Have a wonderful and safe diwali all!!

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