New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has made it mandatory for telecom companies to offer recharge plans exclusively for voice calls and messages, without making purchase of internet data a compulsion. The TRAI declared these changes in the Telecom Consumer Protection (12th Amendment) Regulation 2024 recently.
Reports claim that nearly 150 million people in India are 2G users, dual-SIM owners, elderly individuals and rural residents, who don’t use data frequently or sometimes at all. This decision will now allow users to pay only for the service they require rather than purchasing data, which they don’t use.
According to the new rules, it is also mandatory for the telecom operators to extend the special recharge coupons’ validity from the 90 days—the current term— to 356 days.
“…the service provider shall offer at least one Special Tariff Voucher exclusively for voice and SMS with validity period not exceeding three hundred and sixty-five days,” TRAI stated in the Telecom Consumers Protection (Twelfth Amendment) Regulations, 2024.
‘Many use voice and SMS features only…’
According to TRAI’s consultation, there are many users in India, including senior citizens, families with home broadband, and non-tech-savvy individuals, who would need and prefer voice and SMS without data packs bundled with their recharge packages.
“It is also observed that mandating Voice and SMS only STV will provide an option to subscribers who do not require data, and this in any way will not reverse the government initiative of data inclusion as service providers are at liberty to offer bundled offers and data only vouchers,” TRAI mentioned in its explanatory note.
TRAI has introduced greater flexibility in the recharge values. The telecom operators are now allowed to issue recharge vouchers of any denomination. But a minimum recharge option of Rs 10 is still mandatory. Recharge amounts previously were limited to Rs 10 and its multiples.
TRAI’s move not in synch with telecom giants’ choices
TRAI’s initiative may hamper the interests of telecom giants like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. These service providers are focused on encouraging users to shift from 2G to 4G or 5G. These companies target at boosting Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) by offering bundled packages of unlimited data and voice services in their recharge packages. Earlier, Reliance Jio had termed 2G services a barrier to India’s digital growth.
