The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed all the telecom service providers to prevent misleading tariff advertisement.
In its Consumers Handbook on Telecommunications, TRAI has stated that no tariff plan should be offered, presented, marketed or advertised in a manner that is likely to mislead the subscribers.
The objective of the order is to further improve transparency in telecom tariff offers by facilitating the telecom subscribers to choose the tariff plans that best meet their need.
TRAI has directed the service providers that advertisements published by them should be transparent and non misleading and unambiguous. The regulator has asked them to disclose all material information in unambiguous manner, obtain the website address and customer care number of the telecom access service provider and that the advertisements issued in vernacular languages contain all the mandatory disclosures in the same vernacular language.
The service providers will be required to publish all the tariff plans in prescribed formats in at least one regional language and one English newspaper at an interval not more than six months. TRAI has also directed service providers to maintain an advertisement register which must include a specimen of every tariff related advertisements, and carry out internal audit to ensure that they are complying with all aspects of this direction and to report compliance to the Authority on half yearly basis.
At the same time, telecom operators cannot increase tariffs of subscriber plans for six months from the enrolment date but they are free to reduce call rates.
