How Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea’s this big ‘WhatsApp’ problem may be easing

The Amazon order delivery updates that came via SMS moved to WhatsApp sometime last year. Similarly, there are some other enterprise updates to customers that are now sent through WhatsApp instead of SMS. This transition did not go quite well with the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the body that represents India’s top three telecom companies — Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea.In a letter to telecom ministry, COAI accused global technology giants, such as Microsoft and Amazon, of “presumably circumventing and bypassing the legal telecom route” by using WhatsApp to send enterprise messages to customers. The letter claimed that this caused a likely Rs 3,000-crore annual revenue loss to both the Centre and the service providers.
It seems, things may change for Indian telecom service providers. According to a report in Economic Times, major tech companies including Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are moving away from WhatsApp for sending one-time passwords (OTPs) to their customers in India. This shift comes just two months after Meta, the owner of WhatsApp, introduced new pricing and regulations for sending international authentication messages.

What shows the big shift away from WhatsApp

The report states that this switch has resulted in a significant increase in international SMS traffic for Indian telecom operators. Data suggests a 50-70% surge in monthly volumes since March, with Meta (WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram) still being the leading contributor.
“We’ve seen a rise in international SMS volumes from large clients who prefer the reliable and widespread reach of SMS,” said Rajdip Gupta, managing director of Route Mobile, a cloud communications company, as quoted in the Economic Times report. “It’s important to remember that traditional telecom channels like SMS and voice calls offer an added layer of security by preventing exchange of user data between competing tech firms.”
While neither Meta nor telecom companies like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have commented on the issue, experts believe the shift is driven by more than just cost.
In March, WhatsApp introduced a new category named “authentication-international” specifically for OTPs sent by international firms operating in India and Indonesia. This category carried a price tag of Rs 2.3 per message, a twenty-fold increase from previous rates, but still cheaper than standard SMS fees.

Why the shift from WhatsApp is more than about money

However, analysts suggest that the bigger concern for these tech giants, which are direct competitors of Facebook-parent Meta, is the requirement to disclose their primary business location when sending messages through WhatsApp.
Business location has been a contentious point between tech companies like Amazon and Google, and telecom operators in India. The lack of a clear definition for “international traffic” within telecom regulations is at the heart of this dispute. Telecom operators classify these companies as foreign entities due to their overseas servers, while the tech firms argue that they are registered Indian businesses with locally generated SMS messages traveling on domestic networks.
Nitin Singhal, managing director of communications service provider Sinch, offered his perspective in the report, stating, “The true impact of the new authentication category, which goes live in July, on the market remains to be seen.”