The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has barred all telcos and their channel partners from offering differential tariffs through the mobile number portability (MNP) route, stating that such offerings are discriminatory and contravene current rules of pricing. The regulator said that the MNP specific tariff offers are violative of Clause 10 of the Telecom Tariff Order (TTO), 1999 which deems any differential tariff offering to subscribers porting from another network as an invalid and unreasonable classification, as the motive is discriminatory because it induces churn from the competitor’s network.
In a direction issued by TRAI, the regulator has asked telecom service providers to ensure, with immediate effect, that “only the tariffs reported to TRAI are offered through their channel partners/distributors/retailers/third party apps etc.” and that “all tariff offers comply with extant TRAI regulations/directions/orders, where the TSP’s name, brand is used for marketing/offering/selling products and services.”
