The tussle between Trai and Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) is still going on. Back on August 25, Trai had issued a show-cause notice to the telco in regards to its RedX premium tariff plan. Now Trai has extended the date for Vodafone Idea Limited for responding to the show cause notice till September 8. This is not the first time the date has been extended though. Initially, the date set by Trai for responding was August 31, 2020, but it was later extended to September 4. Now, the date has been further extended to September 8, 2020.
Vodafone Idea to Respond to Show Cause Notice by September 8, 2020
As per a report from ET Telecom, Trai has extended the date of responding to the show cause notice by September 8, 2020. The show-cause notice issued was over the RedX plan offered by the telco. It is a premium tariff plan claiming to provide higher 4G speeds. Airtel was let off the hook for the same matter since the company was ready to comply with every direction and command of Trai and further modified its plan so that it doesn’t violate the regulatory framework.
In the show-cause notice issued on August 25, 2020, Trai had asked Vodafone Idea Limited about why there should be no action taken against the company for the violation of the regulatory framework. Trai had pointed out in the letter to VIL that the promise of providing priority service with a faster 4G network is not in compliance with the regulatory framework.
The regulator says that the RedX premium tariff offered by Vodafone Idea Limited is not completely transparent and thus will be very misleading to the customers. The plan violates the Telecom Tariff order of 1999 along with the license agreement and technical specifications.
Vodafone has until now been firm in its stance of not misleading the customers and has said that the priority service is not a new kind of service thus it didn’t need a separate examination by the regulator. But Trai doesn’t believe that. It says the offering is a new type of service and it should have been notified as that only.
