TRAI rules on the lifetime prepaid offers from mobile companies

The mobile service providers in India recently launched their lifetime prepaid connectivity offers, which enabled a consumer to pay a price initially to get unlimited incoming validity on his mobile phone.

Most offers had small catches requiring them to renew their packages within a particular period but these were for smaller denominations. The telecom regulatory body (TRAI) however has now stated that the mobile operators cannot change the tariffs on these packages till the lifetime of the connection is valid.

In a way, TRAI has overruled the statements from the mobile companies, which said that they were free to change the tariff plan after six months of launching the scheme. They also had said that if regulatory or policy changes do not make the lifetime plan viable, they had the freedom to withdraw it any time.

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has now given an order that bars cellular operators from changing the tariff of the lifetime-prepaid offer as long as the operator is in business. TRAI said in its order: “Hike in tariff is prohibited for any tariff item specified in the lifetime tariff plans during the entire lifelong validity period. In the case of tariff plans other than plans with lifetime validity which have a component of upfront payment, service providers are not allowed to hike tariffs during the promised validity period of such plans.”

They added: “With a view to protect the interests of subscribers who make an upfront payment in lieu of certain promised features including the validity and also to bring out more clarity to the concept of lifetime validity, the Authority considered it necessary to issue orders in this regard.”