TATA DOCOMO is getting aggressive on the VAS front as well as the firm announces per character pricing for SMS. Branded as ‘diet-SMS’ the offer aims to provide subscribers with an option to pay as per the number of characters used in the SMS with spaces between words not to be treated as character.

Users will be charged 1 paise per character.

“In all of the eight Circles where we have launched our GSM services, we made the promise of introducing path-breaking innovative products and services, and never-before tariff options. The diet-sms service is another way of fulfilling that promise,” says Mr Deepak Gulati, President, TATA DOCOMO.  “Today’s customer is discerning and seeks transparency, innovation and differentiation. Our products and services are tailored to uphold the trust associated with the House of Tata—and TATA DOCOMO follows the concept of fare being fair. From today, all TATA DOCOMO subscribers will be able to enjoy the benefits of pay-as-you-use even in SMS,” he adds.

The operator will allow subscribers to choose diet SMS option whenever the subscribers has to send short messages. “Our diet-sms concept is a result of thought leadership, creativity and innovation, riding on TATA DOCOMO’s customer-centric approach to doing business,” comments Mr Gurinder Singh Sandhu, Head of Marketing, TATA DOCOMO.

“We broke the per-minute pricing paradigm for voice calls when we launched our services—with diet-sms, we are doing it again, this time on the SMS front. At TATA DOCOMO, we believe in taking the best that technology has to offer to make life more refreshing for our customers,” says Gulati.

To enable the diet-SMS option, subscribers need to choose the Dive-in-Now option, scroll to the diet-SMS option, open it and send the SMS.

A phone application can also be downloaded from the TATA DOCOMO WAP portal or by sending an SMS to 54321. Or as another option subscribers can send SMS under diet-SMS by using the normal SMS menu, type the mobile number followed by space, followed by message and then SMS this to 52208.

TATA DOCOMO claims that most of the subscribers in India send short SMSes.