The government on Friday banned short message service (SMS) for post-paid subscribers in Jammu and Kashmir while restricting the facility for pre-paid users from midnight tonight due to security concerns. The Department of Telecom has asked all the 12 operators,including state-owned BSNL and other private players like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar,to withdraw text message service to their post-paid users in J&K altogether. "In case of existing post-paid users,the service should be withdrawn immediately," a statement from DoT said. In case of pre-paid subscribers,the facility has been restricted to 10 SMSes per day per subscriber. "SMS messages originated outside J&K service area in India and from the networks of International Long Distance (ILD)operators should not be delivered to Mobile subscribers in J&K service area," the statement said. The operators have also been asked to immediately stop all tariff packages offering free SMS service.
