Telcos to have 30 days plans, TRAI adds clarity on earlier order

The telecom regulatory body, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has provided a level of clarity on one of its orders dated Jan 27, 2022.

According to this order, all the telecom companies in the country, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and the cash-strapped Vodafone Idea were asked to launch at least one prepaid offer providing services for 30 days.

Normally, the telcos provide services for a validity of 28 days. Regarding this, the telecom regulator directed the companies to come up with at least 1 such offer with a 30-day validity.

TRAI also asked the operators to make sure that the plan allows users’ pack to recharge on the same date every month.

TRAI’s order was followed by a series of questions that telcos had, which has been addressed by the regulator, and brought to the readers in this article.

Before learning TRAI’s response/solution to the issue, let’s learn about the queries these telcos had.

Queries Telcos had with 30-day prepaid recharge plan
There were three major questions the telecom providers had, in relation to TRAI’s order.

• If a customer makes a recharge on the 31st of that month, when would be the next date of recharge?
• What happens if the customer makes a recharge one Jan 29, Jan 30, or Jan 31?
• Telcos believe that for them to come up with a recharge pack like this, 2 months is a very small time, as the order is dated Jan 27, 2022. They have asked the regulator for more time.

TRAI’s response to Telcos on order queries
The telco addressed the telcos’ queries on the 30-day recharge plan order, and stated that it would remove the requirement of the plan renewing on the same date every month, as not all months have the same number of days.

Secondly, it made changes by stating that if the date of renewal lies on a date like Feb 30, which is not available, the renewal date would be considered as the last date of that month.

TRAI didn’t say anything about what happens when the subscriber recharges on the 31st of a month, added a cover. Trak.in