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Educational institutions that subscribed to the bulk SMS service did not benefit during Mumbai terror attacks
City's schools and colleges have become tech-savvy. They no longer depend on circulars, but have turned to the bulk SMS service that circulates emergency alerts to students. However, on November 27, a day after the Mumbai terror attacks, most educational institutions failed to send these alerts.
Shreedhar Shetti, principal, Lala Lajpatrai College, Mahalaxmi, said, "Our staff couldn't make it to college during the terror attacks. Hence, sending out SMSes to students was not possible."
St Xavier's College decided to subscribe to this service after 26/7 deluge, however, three years on, the service is not operational. "After the floods, we thought an SMS alert would be useful to keep in touch with students, but the service provider has been unable to make it operational in time," said Father Arun D'Souza, a professor at St Xavier's College, near the Cama and Albless Hospital, where the terrorists attacked.
Despite the failure of the bulk SMS service, city's educational institutions are keen to subscribe to it. R K Patheja, vice-principal, Khalsa College, Matunga, said, "After the terror attacks, we have planned to start the bulk SMS service to keep in touch with students during a crisis. A few service providers have approached us, but we will take a decision to install this software only after testing it."
Added Suhas Pednekar, principal, Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, "Post 26/11, we are planning to get the software that can help us to connect with students via SMS."
Who uses bulk SMS software?
Bulk SMS softwares are available in the market for Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 depending on the number of messages to be sent out. Such services are popular with stock brokerage firms, and PR agencies who use it to send info on offers and schemes to their clients. | 
