New Delhi: Telecom companies including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, BSNL, and Vodafone Idea now offer recharge cards that are valid for 30 days and are renewable on the same day of every month. Such plans are offered on the websites of mobile operators, and customers can sign up for them, according to a statement made on Monday by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
“Subscribers of Telecom Service Providers are hereby informed about the availability of 30 days vouchers and vouchers renewable on same date of every month. They may make use of these vouchers which were launched on demand of consumers at large,” TRAI said in a press release.
The action is in accordance with the regulator’s January ruling, which demanded that all mobile operators provide at least one plan voucher (PV), one special tariff voucher (STV), and one combo voucher (CV), all of which must have a 30-day or monthly validity.
The Telecommunications Tariff Order was amended by TRAI in January, requiring telecom carriers to provide 30-day vouchers and monthly renewable prepaid plans. After receiving complaints from customers about telecom service providers (TSPs)’ pricing offers with a 28-day validity period rather than tariff offers with a 30-day or monthly validity period, it issued the order.
“Every Telecom Service Provider shall offer at least one Plan Voucher, one Special Tariff Voucher and one Combo Voucher which shall be renewable on the same date of every month and if the date of such renewal is not available in a month, the date of renewal shall be the last date of that month,” TRAI’s January directive stated.
All telecom providers offered the bulk of prepaid tariff packs with a validity duration of 28/56/84 days prior to the TRAI order. This was brought to light by a number of users who claimed that they had to perform 13 recharges every year in order to use the 28-day validity pack.
