TRAI Releases Draft Telecom Consumers Protection (Eighth Amendment) Regulations, 2015

TRAI has released draft “Telecom Consumers Protection (Eighth Amendment) Regulations, 2015” for public consultation, inviting comments of Stakeholders.

TRAI has been receiving several complaints from consumers regarding non-availability of information relating to the amount of data used during a data session. The service providers offer concessional tariff for data, upto a certain limit, through Special Tariff Vouchers or Combo Vouchers (data packs) and also through certain tariff plans. As generally, the tariff for any usage beyond the specified limit is substantially higher, in case the customer does not know about reaching the limit for concessional tariff, it results in substantial charges levied, leading to sudden bill shock or unexpected deduction of balance amount. The consumers have also voiced their concern about activation of internet service on mobile phones without their consent and knowledge leading to sudden deduction of charges for data usage. TRAI has examined these complaints and has felt that measures need to be taken for addressing these genuine concerns of customers. In this regard, TRAI proposes to amend the Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2012, to provide for the following, so as to protect the interest of mobile consumers:

i) Information to consumers relating to usage of data: It is proposed to mandate the service providers to provide information, through SMS or USSD, to mobile users, who have subscribed to data connection other than through data packs, about quantum of data used and the tariff thereof after every 5000 kilobytes of data usage.

ii) It is also proposed to mandate the service providers to provide the mobile subscriber, who has taken data connection through data packs or through tariff plan with discounted tariff upto certain limit, an alert through SMS or USSD, whenever the limit of data usage reaches 50%, 90% and 100% of data limit. Also when the usage reaches 90% of the limit, information about the applicable tariff beyond the data limit shall also to be communicated.

iii) Activation or Deactivation of data services:It is proposed that data services should be activated or deactivated only with the explicit consent of the subscriber through toll free short code 1925, following the prescribed procedures for obtaining explicit consent of the consumer and for deactivation data. Further, the customers should also be informed through SMS at periodic interval, not exceeding six months, about the prescribed procedure for deactivation of data.

The draft “Telecom Consumers Protection (Eighth Amendment) Regulations, 2015” is available on TRAI website http://www.trai.gov.in. The comments are to be submitted by 12.05.2015 at e-mail advqos@trai.gov.in.