TRAI for lesser telecom tariff plans

NEW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning to limit the number of tariff plans offered by telecom operators in the country.

The regulator, in a consultation paper, said that each telecom operator has been permitted to offer 25 tariff plans, but the number has increased to around 100 tariff plans.

“The competitive activity has also resulted in a large number of tariff offers being made by the service providers in order to acquire and retain their subscribers. Transparency in service provision is and has been one prime issue of concern for the Authority,” said a TRAI statement.

The regulator also said that tariff plans with misleading titles are prohibited. “No tariff plan shall be offered, presented, marketed or advertised in a manner that is likely to mislead the subscribers. All India average suggests that the total number of plans on offer per service area is 39 in the wire line, 38 in WLL (F), and 110 for mobile services (GSM and CDMA together). These figures are expected to substantially increase in the near future when government issues licenses to new operators in the mobile segment and they commence their operations.”

TRAI’s study on tariff usage indicates that 75 per cent of the subscriber base is concentrated among 5-7 tariff schemes, which makes it futile to have as many 25 plans per operator. The regulator has also observed that operators were not transparent enough in spelling out the details of the various value-added schemes bundled with the connection.

TRAI stated that ‘it continues to receive complaints from consumers and consumer organizations highlighting inter-alia issues affecting transparency in the tariff offers of access service providers’.

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