As per industry sources, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is planning to examine whether operators are complying with its directive that barred telcos and their channel partners from making any differential tariff offers to attract customers through the mobile number portability (MNP) route.
As part of the scrutiny, TRAI will also check whether telcos are offering tariffs that have not been filed with the regulator, and which may be construed as discriminatory and in contravention of the rules around pricing. Meanwhile, TRAI has sought bids from its battery of empanelled auditors involved in telco metering and billing by June 10, 2022, following which five auditors will be selected.
Besides, the audit would also verify if only the tariffs reported by the operators to TRAI are being offered through their channel partners, distributors, retailers and third-party apps.
Earlier, in September 2021, TRAI had directed telcos to offer only those tariffs that had been reported to the regulator, and to ensure that these are compliant with extant regulations/directions. Its directive then was in response to numerous complaints lodged by all the three telcos – Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) – against each other for coming up with discriminatory MNP specific offers to grab consumers.
