BSNL starts voice SMS service in Punjab, pan-India roll out soon

This would be a big headache for IM service providers like WeChat and Whatsapp who are off late depending a lot on voice SMSes to push their services.

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State run telecom service provider, BSNL has started voice SMS services in Punjab which will be extended across the country in a phased manner, the Economic Times has reported today. "The service allows customers to record their voice by dialling a 10 digit code and send it as a message. Similarly, the voice SMS can be retrieved by dialling a short code. The submission and retrieval of voice SMS will be charged 75 paise per minute," Economic Times said.
Currently, users are only allowed to send voice SMSes to other BSNL users but the teleco is planning to allow users to send voice messages to subscribers of other operators. BSNL General Manager (sales and marketing) Satish Sharma was also quoted as saying that the "service will be available in all the North zone circles in 15 days followed by South zone, where it will be launched in one month”.
Till now, only Instant Messaging service providers like WeChat, Line Messenger etc. This BSNL service is in all likelyhood would be replicated by other telecos in coming times and definitely hurt the IM service providers's businesses.