Centre bans bulk SMSs

Gearing up for the Ayodhya title suit verdict, the Centre has banned the bulk SMS and MMS messages across the country for the next three days. According to an order issues by the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology on Wednesday evening, the bulk SMS and MMS will be banned for the next 72 hours. The unprecedented decision has been taken to preempt spreading of rumours that could disturb communal peace.

“Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has issued orders in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs to all Mobile Telecom Services Providers in the country for banning all bulk SMS and MMS in all service areas with immediate effect for next 72 hours,” said the Telecom Department in a statement. In a related development, Home Minister P Chidambaram has asked States to take adequate measures to maintain law and order, especially in sensitive areas.

The Home Minister said it is possible that there will be one or more judgements delivered by the three-judge special Bench. “The judgements would have to be read carefully, and the findings of the Hon’ble judges on each of the issues in the four suits would have to be analysed meticulously, before any conclusions may be drawn,” he said.

Appealing for calm, he said, “It would be inappropriate to reach any hasty conclusion that one side has ‘won’ or that the other side has ‘lost’.”

The Government decision to ban the bulk SMS came within hours of Chidambaram’s statement. Such ban orders were earlier implemented in Jammu and Kashmir to curb the mischievous SMSs that were used to incite violence. “The decision has been taken in view of feedbacks by internal security agencies that some people might try disturb communal harmony by spreading rumours through bulk SMSs,” said Government sources.

Technical experts in the telecom industry feel that this ban would also control the number of SMSs sent by an individual user. “Technically this ban is on limiting the number of SMSs. We feel technical implementation of the Government order would also restrict the number of personal messages per day. It might be that a person can send maximum 10 to 20 SMSs individually per day. This is my feeling. We just got the order from the Government and we have to implement it. We have to see, whether it would technically limit the number of SMSs per day,” said a senior officer of a cellphone company.

The Government’s decision would literally also put a full stop on the commercial messages for the next 72 hours. The ban would in a way provide temporary relief to the mobile users fed up with the unsolicited commercial messages, basically from the real estate and banking sector.