New Delhi: In a bonanza to Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) mobile phone users, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on July 31 allowed all basic phone service providers to offer the facility of short messaging service (SMS) to their subscribers.

"The authority, after considering the background information, license 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 will become more competitive vis-a-vis cellular mobile services.

With this decision, major beneficiaries would be Tata Indicom, Reliance Infocomm, Shyam Telecom besides two state owned organisations – Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

PTI