Trai tells telcos to give their tariff plans online from June 30

NEW DELHI: The telecom regulator TRAI has directed operators to report all tariff plans on its online portal from June 30 so that consumers can compare them on a single platform, marking the national expansion of a programme started in April.

The order comes amid a tussle between leading mobile service providers and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India over segmented tariffs offered by telcos to retain customers. The regulator wants these plans to be publicly displayed, but carriers have opposed the move.

“To protect the interest of the consumers of telecom sector, the Authority hereby directs all the access service providers to report to the authority with effect from the 30th June 2018, through XML API web-service, all the tariffs offered to the consumers, in addition to the existing tariff reporting requirements,” the regulator said in a direction on Wednesday.


The Cellular Operators Association of India, which represents all telcos, said the deadline given by Trai was difficult to meet. It has written to Trai seeking more time. Presently, telcos file their tariffs to the regulator within seven working days of offering them through the offline channel.

The regulator’s diktat may mean that segmented tariff offers should also be reported on the portal, although industry executives said this would not be necessary because the telecom tribunal had issued a stay.

“Trai can ask for details of the segmented offers, but since there’s a stay, we are not mandated to share it,” a senior industry executive said, asking not to be identified.
The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on April 24 granted an interim stay on the reporting requirement of segmented offers and the new definition for ascertaining ‘significant market power’ for predatory pricing by Trai on pleas from Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

The regulator, through an order of February 16, tweaked the definition of significant market player and said operators will have to provide services to all subscribers availing of the same tariff plan in a non-discriminatory manner.

TDSAT placed a qualifier on the reporting requirements, saying Trai will be entitled to ask for details of segmented discounts or concessions “for analysis” but that “no penalty shall be imposed on that basis” till further orders are given in the ongoing appeals by Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. The final hearing in the matter will begin on July 9.

Trai introduced a portal for consumers to compare all mobile phone tariffs across operators in April - the first such platform to be backed by the government – with the aim of bringing more transparency on available plans.

The portal’s beta version showed regular tariffs, special tariff vouchers, promotional tariffs and value-added service packs, among others, and was limited to Delhi and Gujarat. With the May 23 order, tariffs across all circles and all carriers will be available for consumers.