The ongoing tariff war in the Indian mobile services refuses to die down. After reducing tariffs for voice and roaming services, SMS is on the radar of operators now with Reliance Communications introducing to revolutionary plans in the SMS space.

The first plan offers SMS at one paisa per SMS. Another plan offers unlimited SMSes for Re.1 per day. The plans are open to RCom’s CDMA and GSM subscribers including both for prepaid and postpaid subscribers.

“SMS continues to grow every year with more and more innovative ways of utilizing its potential coming in the forefront. Indians are using SMS as a mode of communication to keep in touch with friends and family. With select subscriber groups, SMS is a preferred communication mode over voice calls. On account of significant tariff disparity in the recent months, it has lost its due share of attention. Considering this, Reliance Communications with its 1st in the industry initiative, aims to revitalize SMS usage in the country”, says Mr. Mahesh Prasad, President – Reliance Communications.

“Like our earlier Simply Reliance offerings of Local, STD and Roaming calls at 50p/min and 1p/sec from any Reliance mobile to any phone on any network, yet to be matched by any competitive offering.  With this best in the industry initiative, we offer significant value not only to our existing 9 Crore CDMA and GSM customers, but are also aimed at gaining new acquisitions from high SMS usage groups of the GSM community such as young professionals and the youth across India”, adds Mr.Prasad.

RCom subscribers irrespective of their current plan can subscribe to the one paisa per SMS plan through a voucher of Rs 11 per month and for the unlimited plan Re.1 will be deducted from their prepaid balance.

The company is also taking measures to ensure that telemarketers and bulk SMS service providers do not misuse these plans for commercial gains. For this it has put a cap of 15,000 SMSes per month under the unlimited plan.