TRAI Simplifies Life for Mobile Users Starting Today, March 21st, 2012

 

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) the regulatory body seeks to ensure Quality Of Service (QOS) across telecom operators in the country. On 6 January 2012 it outlined several guidelines via Directive no. 308-5/2011-QOS dubbed as TELECOM CONSUMERS PROTECTION REGULATIONS 2012, as earlier we shared on TelecomTalk. On 21 March 2012 these directives need to be implemented starting today.

 BSNL will be the first telecom operator which has already announced the implementation of all new guidelines for its prepaid 2G and 3G Mobile service and all other operators will also follow the same.

Following are the benefits the new guidelines bring to consumers:

Simplicity & standardization of tariff vouchers across operators.

Transparency for Value Added Services activated on the account.

Information on premium rate VAS.

Changes which would be ‘seen’ by consumers from now onwards:

New Start Up Kit:

Will contain only the SIM with no rate plan attached (no confusion of tariffs for the customer).

New Vouchers :

Only 3 voucher types will exist (Plan Voucher, Top-up, STV) (easy to differentiate between talktime vouchers against tariff benefits).

Plan Vouchers :

These would offer only the basic plan, with no talktime attached.

Top-Up Vouchers :

These would provide only talktime (in Rupees) with main account validity.

STV Vouchers :

These would provide only rate cutters, and no talktime.

Colour Coding :

The 3 vouchers would be segregated by different colours, for ease of understanding by consumers.

Usage information :

Consumers would be informed of the usage after every call / data session / VAS activation. While this may be already available with several operators, the same has been now made mandatory.

Past Usage information:

Consumers can now avail their usage over the last 180 days by paying a fee of Rs. 50 per request. Details that would be made available are Calls / SMS / VAS / Roaming.

Account related information:

Consumers can also avail information about their accounts – Tariff plan activated / Account Balance / Active VAS details are now available via SMS to the customer.

Premium VAS Service:

Consumers will be informed that the number they are calling is chargeable, and after a ‘beep’ the VAS service would be connected, thereby offering consumer greater awareness of the tariffs.