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Indian carriers forced to send TXT for every 10 megabyte download

Not everyone in the next billion can afford lots of data

India has decided its mobile carriers must inform subscribers every time they download ten megabytes of data.

New rules (PDF) posted last week also contain a new provision that will force carriers to switch off mobile data access on receipt of a single text message.

Not all of India's mobile carriers have a national footprint, so roaming charges can be incurred within the nation's borders. Opting out of data is therefore a handy tool. Some carriers have also indulged in sharp-ish practices, either making it very hard to opt out of data or not being particularly forthcoming when subscribers approach or exceed their download allowances.

All carriers must now send their customers notice every time they get through ten megabytes of data. For those on capped download plans, there's an TXT or Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) message coming when they hit fifty percent, ninety per cent or one hundred per cent of their download allowances.

There's also a new provision that “No service provider shall activate or deactivate the data service on the Cellular Mobile Telephone connection of a consumer without his explicit consent.” TXTing 1925 will be the method of opting in or out.

India's new laws may not be entirely unusual, as we know that in the early days of Indonesia's mobile phone networks all manner of aggressive competitive tactics like finding ways to deplete the credit of rival carriers' subscribers, or flooding the market with cut-price offers to the extent that people change numbers every few weeks. That tactic was so “successful” that Indonesia's government pondered a ,massive hike to the price of SIM cards in order to stop enormous rates of customer churn.

Indian carriers haven't been quite as bold as Indonesia's, but have nonetheless earned their government's ire.

It's not hard to see why, as when you monitor the output of India's government, as Vulture South does, you'll find announcements about manufacturing high tech goods nestling alongside news of plans to improve the lot of village women using manual looms. Those women, and plenty more Indians, are being told that mobile devices are the way to interact with government or buy transport tickets, but don't have a heap of cash with which to buy data capacity. These new laws should ensure that as India relies more on digital services, mobile phone users are in a position to use them for personal profit, not just telcos'. ®

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