Pre-paid users can get bill by paying Rs 50: Trai

In an effort to protect the interests of pre-paid mobile servicesusers, telecom regulator Trai on Friday said they can now get an itemised billfrom service providers on request and at a price not exceeding Rs 50.

"To ensure that pre-paid consumers get their itemisedusage of their account, the service providers have been mandated to provide thesame within 30 days to the consumer on request and at a reasonable cost notexceeding Rs 50," Trai said in its 'Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations,2012'.

The sectoral regulator has announced the regulations with aview to protect the interests of telecom consumers, particularly pre-paidusers.

The consumer can also get details of his tariff plan,available balance in his account and details of any value-added serviceactivated on his telephone number at any time from the service provider, freeof charge.

According to the regulations, it will be mandatory toprovide a start-up kit (SUK) to each subscriber at the time of enrollment tothe telecom service provided by an operator, which will include the SIM cardand mobile number, besides an abridged version of the citizen's charterprovided under the Telecom Consumers Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012.

The vouchers offered by the service providers have beensimplified and standardised into three categories - plan vouchers, top-upvouchers and special tariff vouchers (STV).

The plan voucher shall be used for enrolling a consumer intoa tariff plan. The top-up voucher shall contain only the monetary value inrupees and such monetary value shall be without any restrictions in terms ofthe validity period or the services used, Trai said.

To promote further transparency and easy identification byconsumers, a distinct colour band is to be provided on the reverse of eachvoucher.

According to Trai, at present, about 96 per cent ofconsumers are in the pre-paid category and unlike post-paid consumers, thepre-paid consumers do not get any bills for their usage and the amount charged.

As part of its sustained efforts to address the needs ofconsumers, Trai had initiated a consultation process to review various measuresalready in place and to evolve appropriate further measures to safeguard theinterest of consumers by issuing a consultation paper, 'Review of Measures toProtect Interest of Consumers in the Telecom Sector' on August 2, 2010.