NEW DELHI: Prepaid mobile subscribers now have more reasons to cheer as TRAI on Monday asked the telecom operators to waive the processing charge on the top-up cards, resulting full talk time on such recharges.
Users will now have to pay just an administrative fee not exceeding Rs 2 per recharge and other applicable taxes, TRAI said.
The regulator said it was brought to the TRAI notice that telcos are deducting a fixed amount even for recharges exclusively meant for providing talk time to subscribers who already have validity.
Such subscribers had already obtained validity by paying a fixed fee. The authority felt that levy of a second rocessing fee when the customer buys talk time through exclusive top-ups is unjustified, TRAI said.
This is one among many initiates taken by the regulator in its latest policy directives for making the telecom service more consumer friendly and transparent.
The regulator has also asked the operators to make the tariff related information available in regional languages also other than English as operators would now venture into semi-urban and rural areas where local language is the primary mode of communication.
The regulator also said that existing customers on the lifetime plans can migrate to new lifetime plans with lower entry fee without having to make additional payment or recharges.
"In cases where a subscriber of an existing lifetime validity plan or unlimited validity plan opts for migration to a new lifetime validity or unlimited validity plan, with lower entry fee, the service provider shall not levy any upfront payment or recurring charges or fee for allowing such migration," TRAI said.
In another consumer friendly move, TRAI said the benefits of straight tariff reduction general in nature should be made available to all the customers without any condition or any 'explicit action' by the subscribers. Sometimes the operators ask their subscribers to send an SMS or register themselves to avail the benefits of freshly announced tariff cuts.
The authority has disallowed such implementation of the declared and publicised lower tariffs and has mandated that "in cases of straight tariff reductions, where the declared intention of the operator is to extend the benefit to all subscribers without any attached liabilities, there shall not be any pre-condition of explicit positive action on the part of subscribers".
It has also directed that there shall be no barrier when a consumer migrates across plans or from postpaid to prepaid platform and vice versa -- forcing customer to take new number/new SIM Card.
However migration from prepaid to postpaid shall be permitted subject to operational feasibility, TRAI said.
The regulator asked the operators to reduce the number of 'Blackout' days to 5 in a year.
Some operators are not making available such free/discounted calls/SMS under various plans/packs to customers on certain specified days which happen to be social, cultural/festival days known as blackout days, TRAI said.
Source : DNA India