TRAI instructs telecom companies to provide more transparency to customers regarding network plans

Do you often complain about telecom companies making false promises regarding data, speed or other offers? Worry not, your complaint has now been heard by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). TRAI has issued new rules on tariff plan advertisements that will enable subscribers to get full knowledge and transparency about their offers. 

"The quality of service has been of a great concern when we are at home," TRAI Secretary SK Gupta said, " During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-necessitated lockdown a lot of complaints were received regarding poor telecom network, which need to be amended."

He added, "Telcos have made efforts to provide good service. There are fundamental requirements under which a framework has to be made for the services to be available inside buildings." 

"There is a requirement of a developmental framework in Smart Cities to provide services at a cheaper cost," it was said.

Notably, telecom customers often do not get complete and accurate information about the offers of companies so they often end up choosing the wrong plan. Now, TRAI has said that it needs to stop and telecom companies should start being more transparent to their customers.

"It has been observed that the existing methods of telecom companies are not transparent, some companies do not better state the additional terms, instead stating only what is necessary thereby losing important information in the process which is either opaque or beyond comprehension for the customers."

As per the new rules, telecom customers should not have any difficulty in understanding the terms of the offers, so telecom companies have to keep the operational language very simple. A look at the terms issued by TRAI:

Telecom companies have to explain these:

1. All types of prepaid plans need to have clear information about voice calls, data and SMS
    
2. It needs to be specified exactly how many minutes are available on call balance and how many SMS can be sent daily
    
3. The speed of 2G/3G/4G data after a particular plan gets over
    
4. In case of postpaid services, full details of plan price, rental, security deposit and connection fee have to be provided
    
5. Clear mention regarding the duration of the tariff plan and the last date for payment of the bill
    
6. If there is a bundled tariff plan, customers will have to told which of the non-telecom services are there
    
7. If fees are being charged for non-telecom services, it will also have to be explained