Tata Teleservices, the basic telecom arm of the Tata group, has decided to offer free SMS to wireless limited mobility subscribers in all its circles.

It is also in talks with other cellular operators, and plans to sign an interconnect agreement with them. YVL Pandit, COO, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) said: "Customers can now send and receive SMS from all other Tata Indicom subscribers free of cost. We are also talking to other cellular operators for an interconnect agreement, so that revenue is shared for every message sent/received."

Incidentally, Reliance Infocomm already offers SMS services to its subscribers.  "There is no harm in offering SMS services. Reliance Infocomm is doing the same... and it has not face any action from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India," Pandit said.

TTSL, which plans to launch its limited mobility services in "the rest of Maharashtra circle" in July, and in Mumbai by the end of July, is gearing up for competition from Reliance Infocomm.

TTSL plans to match all offerings made by Reliance Infocomm, which launched commercial services on May 1, 2003, across 693 towns and cities in India. It has acquired 1.5 million customers for its limited mobility services.

TTSL, meanwhile, has sought clarification from Trai on whether the limited mobility operators can offer SMS services.