TRAI Bats For Customers, Questions Telecom Companies’ ‘Mandatory Monthly Recharge’ Policy

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) criticised private telecom companies’ decision to turn off connections of subscribers who do not go opt for the mandatory monthly recharge plan, and directed them not to disconnect the services of a customer with adequate pre-paid balance immediately, The New Indian Express has reported.

Complaints have been made by customers claiming that they were sent text messages seeking “mandatory” recharge of their prepaid accounts despite having sufficient balance. Customers stands to lose their mobile connection if they don’t recharge.

“If there is sufficient money in the account and despite that people are being told that the services will be disconnected, it is not correct,” said R S Sharma, TRAI chairman, while adding that the directive in this regard has gone out to operators on Tuesday (November 27).

The regulatory body which met the operators this week, has instructed the operators to “duly inform subscribers in a clear and transparent manner the date on which the current validity of the existing plan would expire and the manner in which the subscriber can opt for the available plans including minimum recharge plan using subscriber’s available pre-paid account balance or otherwise”.

It also asked the operators to relay this information to their subscribers through SMS not later than 72 hours. With the emergence of Reliance Jio, other telcos are struggling to generate revenue.

Airtel and Vodafone Idea are heavily dependent on 2G voice subscribers, with the former having 250 million of them out of a total subscription base of 346 million , and the latter 346 million out of a total customer base of 442 million. Jio, in contrast, has no 2G SIM, and its 250 million users are all 4G-enabled.

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