The next Pune Open Coffee Club meet (Sat, 7 Jan, 5pm, SICSR) will be on discussing and understanding the mess that is SMS and its impact on startups. If you’re a technologist who is working on, or plans to work on any software offering for the India market, you definitely need to understand this area. If your product has been impacted by the recent TRAI regulations, please come to share your experiences. If you are a startup that is offering SMS based services (either to your customers, or to other startups/businesses), you can actually pitch your products at this meet (see details below).

The importance of SMS for the Indian Technology Market

In the last few years, SMS was emerging as one of the most important “technologies” in the Indian tech and startup space. With 10x the number of users compared to the internet, SMS was the preferred choice for many startups and businesses to communicate with their customers. However, with the recent TRAI anti-spam regulations, things are looking very murky. Most businesses are not allowed to send SMS via gateways. But some businesses (like social networks, travel ticketing services, and financial institutions) are allowed. Others can’t send even to willing customers. But sending via international routes is allowed. And sending via individual SIM cards is allowed, but up to a maximum of 200 per day.

What is allowed? What is not allowed? What is the theory, and what are the ground realities? What is the effect on companies that had built a business with SMS as an important component, and how are they dealing with this? What to expect in the next few years?

These are the questions we hope to tackle in the next Pune Open Coffee Club Meeting, on Sat, 7 Jan, 5pm, 7th floor, SICSR, (Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, near Om Market, Model Colony).

We will have a panel discussion where these issues will be discussed by people who have expertise in this area. This will be followed by short (5-minute) pitches by Pune startups that are either offering SMS based services, or are doing a business where SMS is an important part of their offering.

Please register to attend

If you are a startup who wants to pitch, please send a mail to navin@reliscore.com, or santosh@tinkeron.com

We already have a few experts lined up for the panel discussion, however, we can accomodate one or two more, so if you can suggest someone with practical experience/expertise in this area, please let us know.