On January 8, 2025, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, wrote to Neeraj Mittal, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), urging the DoT to adopt the new definition of "international traffic" set out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). TRAI had previously released clear definitional recommendations on this issue in December 2024. According to TRAI’s definition, any SMS originated or terminated on an electronic device, computer server or application outside India will be classified as international traffic. For A2P SMS specifically, TRAI further clarified that any inbound A2P SMS whose generation, transmission or reception involves electronic devices or systems outside India shall be regarded as an international SMS.
In its letter, COAI requested the DoT to “accept TRAI’s recommendations and incorporate the definitions of international traffic and domestic traffic by appropriately amending the existing unified license agreement and the rules/terms attached to various upcoming authorizations”. This request stems from a long-standing industry dispute: multinational companies, especially e-commerce firms, have been accused of misclassifying international messages as domestic ones to evade higher international SMS fees. Previously, multinational enterprises often initiated international transactions from servers located outside India but sent SMS through domestic Indian systems, thereby avoiding the high costs of international SMS — international SMS charges are around 2 to 5 rupees, while domestic SMS cost only 0.2 to 0.5 paise (0.002 to 0.005 rupees).
COAI believes that adopting this definition will provide much-needed clarity to the industry. Industry experts predict that once the new definition is incorporated into telecom licenses, operators’ annual SMS revenue will increase by more than 4 billion rupees (approximately 400 million yuan). Stricter classification will make it more difficult for international SMS to be disguised as domestic SMS, thus plugging this long-standing revenue loophole. The DoT formally responded to TRAI’s recommendations on March 18, 2025.
