Transparency in tariff: Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea not in favour of TRAI's plan; say move will lead to customer complaints

The country’s three major telecom operators are reportedly against the TRAI’s directive to display details of all tariff plans, said a news report. The sector regulator’s move was a part of a plan to bring transparency in the tariff offers of the telcos. Three major telcos—Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea—are not in favour of the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) demand to inform about their opinion on transparency in publishing the tariff offers, said a report in The Economic Times. The telcos are of the view that publication of withdrawn offers, active only among a few users, would create confusion, leading to a surge in customer complaints to the sector regulator, the report said. [caption id=“attachment_7758981” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Image source: Getty Images.[/caption] Jio, in its submission to TRAI, said that if the plans not available for subscription to new users are published along with all plans available, it would be “liable to confusion for a customer, leading to unwanted complaints”. In December last year, the TRAI had extended by nearly a month to 23 January the timeline for stakeholders to submit their comments on the issue of ’transparency in publishing of tariff offers’, reported PTI. The deadline was extended as “stakeholders have sought extension of time for sending their comments on the Consultation Paper”, TRAI said. The consultation paper on “Transparency in Publishing of Tariff Offers” was issued on 27 November 2019. The original deadline for receiving written comments from the stakeholders was 26 December 2019 and counter comments by 9 January 2020. Citing industry request for extension in timelines, TRAI said, “It has been decided to extend the last date for submission of written comments up to 23 January 2020 and counter comments by 6 February 2020”. No further request for extension would be entertained, TRAI said in a statement. In November last year, the telecom regulator had invited public views on enhancing transparency in disclosure of phone services rates and mooted an idea of introducing tariff calculator to help customers find the best plans to suit their usage. In November 2019, it was reported that TRAI might not make an immediate intervention on tariff issues, including fixation of any floor price as of now, in the wake of the major operators were planning a rate hike. Sources aware of TRAI ’s views on the issue had said that making any fresh move on floor prices or intervention did not make sense at this point, given that operators had already announced plans to hike tariffs in coming days. – With PTI inputs (Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost)