Largest hike ever: Telemarketers cry foul as telcos hike bulk SMS fees by 25%-30%

New Delhi: Telemarketing expenses for enterprises are set to soar beginning next month as telecom operators have hiked commercial bulk SMS charges by 25%-30% – the largest hike ever – following the implementation of blockchain technology to check spam SMS traffic.

The likes of Tata Communications, Videocon, Route Mobile, ACL Mobile, ValueFirst, Gupshup and close to 50,000 telemarketers, third-party aggregators and resellers of messaging services who pay around 9 – 10 paise/SMS to telcos now, are hit by an added charge of 2.5 paise/SMS.