Bharti Airtel is the first operator to have complied with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India?s (TRAI) ?Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2012?.

As per the regulator?s guidelines, an operator is required to provide a prepaid consumer with detailed usage of their account within 30 days at a reasonable cost not exceeding Rs 50.

Keeping in line with this, the operator has introduced an online self-care platform, which will enable prepaid customers to access itemised bills, manage their account and subscribe to value added services.

The company issued a statement in this regard, which said, “Airtel prepaid mobile customers can visit the new self care website to receive and activate customised offers on ‘my airtel, my offer’ (MAMO), view tariff and top up options, request for the itemised bill and more.?

To avail of the service, customers will have to register on Airtel’s website by submitting their prepaid number and the password send to them on their mobiles.

Other guidelines of the regulator?s ?Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2012? include:

  • TRAI has mandated a start-up kit (SUK) that needs to be provided to each consumer at the time of enrolment of the subscriber to the telecom service provided by a service provider. SUK will contain the SIM card, if applicable; mobile number; and an abridged version of the Citizen?s Charter provided under the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations 2012.
  • The vouchers offered by the service providers have been simplified and standardised into three categories- Plan Voucher, Top Up Voucher and Special Tariff Voucher (STV).

* The Plan Voucher shall be used for enrolling a consumer into a tariff plan. A new consumer or an existing consumer can be enrolled into a tariff plan only through this Voucher.

* The Top Up Voucher shall contain only monetary value in rupees and such monetary value shall be without any restrictions in terms of validity period or usage.

* The ?Special Tariff Voucher? or ?STV? could alter one or more items of applicable tariff in the consumer tariff plan in terms of limited or unlimited usage of voice calls, SMS or data but does not provide any monetary value. The validity of the STV shall not exceed ninety days.

  • To promote further transparency and easy identification by consumers, a distinct colour band has been mandated to be provided on the reverse of the each voucher. The Plan Voucher will have a red colour band, the Top Up Voucher a green colour band and the Special Tariff Voucher a yellow colour band.
  • To ensure that a prepaid consumer is aware of the charges made on his last call or data usage, the service providers have been mandated to inform the consumer, through SMS, about the deduction from his account ? after every call made or after every data usage session. This information will include the duration of the call or usage, the charges deducted, balance available, quantum of data usage. The consumer can also get details of his tariff plan, available balance in his account and details of any value added service activated on his telephone number at any time from the service provider, free of charge.
  • A provision has been made in the regulation to ensure that the charges for premium rate service are conveyed through a voice alert before materialisation of the call to such services. Similarly, on activation of any value added service by a consumer, he should receive information about the charges, validity period and the procedure to unsubscribe from the service.