Airtel meddling with iMessage to increase their revenue

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If you are an iPhone user and uses iMessage, then it is probably worth kindly noting this cheap tactic employed by Airtel .....

Firstly, iMessage is free feature from Apple, it works either with apple id (email address) or a GSM phone number.
If you are using a GSM phone number for sending/receiving imessage, then please read on......

iMessage registration for sending/receiving is enabled by an SMS. Apple provides GSM operators an SMS registration feature which enables the phone number to be activated via the operator. Airtel charges Rs 5/- for iMessage registration. This step is mandatory so that it enables users to send and receive iMessage using their own phone number to any iPhone via apple-id email or GSM number anywhere in the world free of cost. An active iMessage session is indicated by a 'blue' arrow on the message send button, where as normal SMS is shown as green arrow. This is the same technology behind Facetime calls as well.

iMessage including Facetime works P2P - i.e connectivity established from one iphone to another iphone. Airtel has control over this P2P connection since the TCP/IP sessions on GSM numbers are routed via their network. What Airtel appears to be doing is, disconnecting sessions that are already established after a certain period, which means the phone's active iMessage sessions are dropped with another phone where you had earlier sent an iMessage.
What this also means is, you would be paying Rs 5 if you had an active iMessage session with an international SMS for an user who is abroad. You may not notice the arrow colour change before sending the SMS, and till an active session is established with the remote phone again you will continue to pay Rs 5 for each SMS. This happens until both phones are active on iMessage. Airtel appears to be 'snooping' on GSM sessions to disconnect, which is against privacy laws as well, in my opinion.

Please take a note of this dubious practice by Airtel and please make sure one of the following
a) make sure the send arrow button is BLUE to avoid being charged (Rs 5 or each SMS if you communicating with an international number).
b) Use email id for sending and receiving iMessage - this will avoid GSM operator altogether, but may not be always practical.

Hope this helps someone and stop Airtel ripping off customers with international SMS charges.
 
Last edited:
@igloo
No, that option does not work if you have already sent an imessage to the same phone number, which is an iPhone/iMessage enabled phone.
The session gets disconnected by the airtel network.
So bascially the iphone "thinks" that the other phone is not an Iphone anymore and will send a 'normal' SMS, thereby incurring cost.
This is the reason why I think airtel is doing something dubious and hence I call it a rip-off , i.e disconnecting active iMessage sessions within their network perimeter.
 
Just wondering anyone else continue to experience this issue.
Please note, if you are abroad this could wipe out 100s of rupees from you pre-paid balance in no time if the imessage are large pictures. Ridiculous Airtel is playing the imessage GSM lookup loophole to their advantage!
 
it is independent of the iPhone model, ios version or settings - very complicated to explain, will still attempt how to reproduce.

Context
1) 2 imessage devices (sender and receiver ) and messaging app which is always enabled for background app refresh (i.e the app has always got access to network features and TCP/IP stack on the phone)
2) 3 networks - sender network, receiver network and operator network (simplified view). Please see the explanation notes below.

Device 1 (sender) - iphone enabled for imessages on 3rd party network
Device 2 (receiver) - iphone enabled for imessage on Airtel network

Device 1 --> always allowed to send imessages to Device 2. Imessage works
Device 2 --> iMessaging thread gets disconnected when the user takes the focus/navigation away from the messaging thread for e.g goes back or move focus to another message thread (or takes the focus to different app). Now the send button is no more BLUE (turns Green) when you get back to the same messaging thread that you received the imessage from. This happens even if "Send as Text Message" option is OFF. The send message button turns blue (indicating imessage session) when it receives the next imessage from Device 1.
Basically what this means is, whenever Device 2 unknowigly initiates sending an imessage (without verifying the blue arrow), it will incur costs (there by adding revenue to Airtel's spoilage accounting books).

Explanation : Sending imessage is enabled by looking up the GSM phone number. Apple provides the API and the messaging app appears to be pre-configured to do this lookup on the airtel registry owned by airtel network. Airtel is disabling this registry when the thread is not activeand hence the TCP/IP look up fails. Now the phone think it is no more an imessage thread, and starts the message as normal text message. Basically, airtel disallows the lookup and the 'normal' SMS gets sent (which will incurr cost)

So far, in the last 2 years (when this thread was started back in 2024, I can authoritatively say I have lost around Rupees 1000-1500 coz I was unknowgily sending imessages (including pictures and videos), and that gets charged at international MMS rates.
 
Last edited:
@Rickysin

The issue cannot be replicated with another sim (from a different mobile service provider) and I hope someone else browsing the forum with an Airtel sim on iPhone with imessage enabled can confirm this by following the steps in my post above, so that we can completely rule out it is not a phone settings issue.
Airtel may not have been addressed this issue or knowingly swept it under the carpet.
 
i tried the following scenario:

1. airtel to airtel imessage -> worked fine
2. jio to airtel imessage -> again worked fine
3. airtel to jio -> worked
4. Vi to airtel -> worked and vice versa

may be your area is having issue or its your phone issue.
 
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