Texting for Greeting – Dashain saw a surge in SMS in Nepal

Did you get a lot of SMS greetings this Dashain ?

I did, and it seems mobile texting (SMS) is getting popular medium of sending best wishes in the festive season. The greeting card printers and designers are getting the heat as people start opting for online greeting cards and SMS greeting as the more efficient and cost effective method of sending best wishes.

Nagarik quotes Surendra Thike of NTC telling that the telecom provider served 21 million SMS messages in the 10-day-long Dashain.

In general a SMS costs Rs. 1 per message. Adding 23 percent tax and service charge, the total cost becomes Rs. 1.23 per message. During the festival season, the service provider companies offer discounted rates.

Dashain Tihar promotion of NTC offer Rs. 0.5 plus tax per message. Another mobile operator, UTL, charged only Rs. 0.3 plus tax per message. Another mobile service provider, Ncell offers 50 free messages to the new subscribers.

Customer volume of NTC is 4.2 million, Ncell 3.2 million, and UTL the smallest with 0.4 million customers.

The customers of NTC sent 2.7million SMS on Saptami, the seventh day of Dashain. The busiest days were Asthami and Nawami (8th and 9th day of Dashain) with 2.9 million SMS on each day. On the final day, Tika, NTC served 1.4 million SMS.

NTC has earned more than 10 million in charges for SMS alone in the Dashain festival. They should be looking forward to earning similar amount, if not more, in the upcoming Tihar too. The current promotion extends till the end of Tihar.