Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) have urged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) not to intervene in fixing prepaid tariff validity spans and keep the matter under forbearance. According to the telcos, any such intervention would be unwarranted and could disrupt and destabilise mobile tariff structures.
Earlier, TRAI had issues a discussion paper in May 2021, mentioning that it was awash with complaints from countless mobile users that they felt cheated as they were being made to do 13 recharges in a year for monthly plans.
In this context, Jio in its submission to the regulator, has suggested that TRAI issue an advisory calling on telcos to offer at least one prepaid plan voucher (PV), special tariff voucher (STV) and combo voucher (CV) with 30-day validity to address consumer complaints around the 28-day packs. Further, the telco added that it has launched additional prepaid tariffs with validity of 30, 60, 90 days, that would address concerns raised in consumer representations received by TRAI.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel in its submission said that the extant policy of forbearance on setting validity of tariff should continue, as a selective ex-ante intervention on one particular non-price aspect of tariff framework, i.e. validity, would force service providers to adjust or rebalance other important price aspects of tariff.
Further, Vi said any change to existing 28, 56, 84 days prepaid tariff validity structure would be a massive one that would require gigantic efforts in terms of consumer awareness, configurations in billing systems, publications in own and third-party channels and retail channel education. Further, it also urged the regulator to see all tariff-related issues holistically, and initially conclude the pending consultation on floor pricing for data services on priority.
