Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, and Bharti Airtel have replied to the consultation paper of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) titled, "Review of Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations (TCPR), 2012." The major agenda of this consultation paper is to understand whether the market needs SMS and voice only validity packs. At the moment, if you want a voice only or a SMS only pack or a combination of both, you can't get such a pack with validity. The inclusion of data in every pack by the telcos resulted in consumers having to recharge with the kind of prepaid plans they don't want. However, it won't be right to say that no conumer wants data on their pack. In fact, most do, and there would be select few users who wouldn't want it.
Read More - 5G BTS Deployment in India Crosses 450000 Mark in July 2024
Reliance Jio said that in its survey, 90% of the users said that the mobile plans are affordable, and over 56% felt that bundling is good for consumers. Jio also said that even if users don't want data on their plans, they would need it to make UPI payments. The telco even said that if the consumer needs less data for basic stuff, then there are such plans (with less data bundled) available.
"We submit there is no need to mandate voice/SMS only plans and the policy of forbearance should be persisted with. It is further submitted that even for this segment; by providing plans without data, we will lose the chance of connecting these users with digital economy," Jio said.
Vodafone Idea also believes that there is no need for SMS/voice-only plans. As per Vodafone Idea (Vi), if such plans were to be offered to the users, then that would discourage non-data users from ever using data. That would not be in line with the government's digital Bharat vision. Vi said that the current plans that are offered to the users are designed after carefully researching the needs of the consumers.
Read More - Reliance Jio Brings New Rs 448 OTT Prepaid Plan
Vi said, "Any regulatory push to have packs without data or incoming only packs, may reverse the efforts made for digital inclusion in the past few years and might induce the marginal ones to stop using digital ways, in the name of affordability."
"We humbly request the authority that there is no need of intervention on providing tariff orders for voice + SMS or data only tariff orders," concluded Vi.
Bharti Airtel echoed similar thoughts. The telecom operator believes that for digital India vision to sustain, voice and SMS only packs should n0t be mandated.
"Taking away the benefit of data will not only deprive the consumer the benefits of digital empowerment but also lead to India fall behind in digital leadership," said Airtel.
Airtel said that there is no need to mandate voice and SMS only packs.
