Continuing its efforts to safeguard the interests of consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has amended the Telecommunication Tariff Order 1999.
Prior to this, the regulator had released a consultation paper, ?Certain Issues Relating To telecom Tariff?, which discussed the various issues pertaining to tariff plans.
Thereafter, the regulator has issued the Telecommunication Tariff (Fifty First Amendment) Order, 2012. Broadly, these guidelines address the issues related to multiplicity of tariff plans and transparency, the need for a flexible approach while implementing ILD tariff plans and limiting the tariff charged on calls and text messages while participating in competitions to four times the normal tariff.
The main features of the Telecommunication Tariff (Fifty First Amendment) Order, 2012 include:
- TRAI has suggested retaining the current cap of 25 tariff plans that can be offered by operators, including post-paid and prepaid offerings.
- All service providers are required to offer at least one post-paid and one prepaid tariff plan that entails the one second pulse rate. This will be applicable on local and national long distance calls
- International long distance call rates will be excluded from the scope of the Tariff Protection act
- The tariff of premium rate services will not exceed four times of the applicable tariff for local calls and SMSs.
