When you heard it in the budget, you most probably said “How unfair!”. A government levy of 10cents on the price of SMS (Short Message Service)! Youngsters will the the ones who will be mostly affected.
Officially, the price of a SMS goes from 0.60 cents to 0.70 cents but it seems that different mobile operators are applying different pricing plans. The new prices are as follows (Prices will be updated asap) :
Orange :
Prepaid – From 0.60cents to 0.79 cents 0.69cents
Postpaid – From 0.50cents to 0.675cents (???)
Note : Orange has now introduced 15% VAT charges on the price (before tax).
Update : It seems that Orange has published a misleading communique as explained below in the comments. 15% VAT is already charged when you buy credit for your account.
Emtel :
Prepaid – From 0.60cents to 0.69cents
Postpaid – From 0.50cents to 0.675cents *to confirm*
MTML :
Freedom plan : From Free to 0.10cents *to confirm*
Chili (Prepaid) : From 0.50cents to ???
And now what?
In the past months, we have seen a considerable decrease in the price of mobile phone calls. It was very much appreciated but no one saw this government tax coming.
Everyone needs to communicate nowadays. We just need to perhaps change the way we do it.
Alternatives of sending sms could be the use of social networking sites to send messages or even email! Twitter might do a very good job here. While paying only your internet mobile communication, you can send and received messages(known tweets) to and from your senders (known as tweeps). It can be worth to give it a try. I think that I can cover this small topic in a new blog post soon.
A quick flashback to years back when SMS was free. Do you still remember? 😛
You are free to leave your comments on this topic.
If you have any confirmation on the price above, please leave a comment below. Thanks!
Yashvinblogs 
Gouvernment dominere, nou pa ler -_-‘
N to say, except MTML,we r yet to see a network provider offer (unlimited) plans against a rental amount. THe cost of communication is way to expensive in Mauritius. Little wonder ORange is making phenomenal profits.
Agree with you that we would need to find alternative ways to ‘sms’ now. WhatsApp is available cross platforms(IOS, Blackberry, Android, Symbian,etc). Seems a plausible alternative as well
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Whatsapp is free for the first year only. I dnt know exactly the amount to be paid for the period after this.
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Roughly less than $2 yearly (after the free trial period of 1 year)
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Orange is Rs 0.69 as well.
Blame that on a misleading communiqué! They included the VAT but failed to mention that the VAT is already extracted when you topup.
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lol. I will need to update that.
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I second the idea of using Twitter for sending messages.Â
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Got an SMS from MTML for my Freedom Plan.. Each SMS now cost 0.10cents. :-s
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😀 Record. . zordi in fini arive 11.53 ek mo pa encore snd 1 msg. . Usually by this time, I am already at my 30th sms. :p
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Is it applicable for international sms as well??
It is still good… compared to the Rs 5 per msg I pay here… 😦
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All sms sent from a Mauritian mobile operator….
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as an mtml freedom plan user, i confirm having received a msg confirming that Rs 0.10 will be charged per sms..
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orange Mru pa p fer double tax charged?
lor so card nu deja pay 15% tax et lor sms nu bizin re pay tax :S
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Wai exacte. C seki Carrot ine dir imper earlier.
*shame* : now I am going to update my post. Was not at home lol.
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There is an app Whatsapp available for every type of feature phones and smartphones. It is alternative to SMS and uses your phone number but only send through Wifi and 2G/3G. way more economical.
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For those who have iPhones n android powered phones can use Viber…this app allows u to make free calls n send free sms provided there is Internet connection for the Viber users…
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other alternative are: whatapp for SMS and viber for free calls.
we use WIFI or 3G
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MTML freedom plan from free to 10cts. I confirm.
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Great!
And any details for the prepaid Chili?
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http://www.e-freesms.com/sms.php
Zte cpv economiz imper bne zen.:!)
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Twitter is a micro blogging platform and is not meant to be used as a messaging tool or to replace SMS and it will just be unsuitable. Nice try to push more Mauritians to use it though.
MTML was on the right track by introducing unlimited SMS to all carriers (and then later, maybe unlimited data plan?) but then the government fucked up everything.
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Oh dear! There was a time when SMS was free? With not plans at all? Damn.
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I was among the first to purchase a prepaid mobile phone in the mid to late 90s. My phone number starts with 750 and has nice round digits. At that time SMS were totally free.
When mobile phone technology was invented to make phone calls, it was only discovered later than SMS could be sent when the channels were not in use. Sending SMS doesn’t cost the mobile phone carrier a single penny so it’s 100% profit for them there if they charge you. That’s why they were able to offer free SMS in the beginning, and also for marketing reasons of course. I used to send so many SMS like crazy at that time.
Regarding the new government tax, it’s a good deal for students. The gov gives them and pensioners free transport. This money has to come from somewhere so tax is raised elsewhere, from SMS for e.g. So isn’t paying an extra 10 cents as tax in return for free transport a good deal for students?
There is no such thing as a free lunch. Next time political parties promise you something for free, they’ll charge you for it from somewhere else. Don’t fall for their gimmicks.
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Well there are still apps like whatsapp, gosms, viber, gtalk, imessage (apple only), bbm(blackberry only). And many other available out there for IM.
I use sms very very rarely..i have wifi at home and at the office, and in between that, the package from Emtel is more than enough.
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