(Update: Rajesh Jain informs us that the short code has been blocked, not the long code. We've updated the post accordingly) And we're not surprised. It was only a matter of time before Vodafone blocked MyToday dailies: some independent VAS execs who have dealt with the MNC telecomoperator had told us around 2 months ago members of their Vodafones VAS team have mentioned a dislike for MyToday and its free SMS services, because it competes with their paid SMS services model. Business Standard reports this, and the theory has been mentioned by Rajesh Jain, MD of Netcore, on his blog. Jain adds that Vodafone had previously blocked access to MyToday's WAP portal (http://mytoday.com). There are two ways of looking at this situation: -- From the operators perspective - it's his pipe, his consumers, and he can choose which services to allow and which to not. He's spent the money on the infrastructure, and it is his prerogative. -- From a service providers perspective - he's buying access via a pipe, and it is up to him which services to supply, at what cost, and how he monetizes it. He's paying for that access, and should be treated with every other service provider. The Real Issue: Content Vs Carriage We take this opportunity to also introduce a theme that we're going to continue to highlight for the rest of the year - of the need to separate content from carriage. At the root of this issue, and indeed the issue in case of other services in…
