New Delhi, July 31: In what could be a bonanza for WLL mobile phone users, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday allowed all basic phone service providers to offer the facility of Short Messaging Service to their subscribers. "The Authority, after considering the background information, licence terms and conditions, has decided that basic service licensees could provide SMS," Trai said in a letter sent to the Basic Service Operators.

Since WLL mobile service is a part of basic telecom services, the basic operators would be allowed to offer the SMS facility to its customers.

The issue of allowing basic service operators to offer SMS facility was under Trai's consideration for more than a year and after various rounds of deliberations and discussion the regulator has given a go-ahead for this.
With SMS facility, WLL mobile service service will become more competitive vis-a-vis cellular mobile services. Bureau Report