The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will quickly determine no matter whether mobile operators should really be asked to give prepaid tariff packs with ‘monthly’ validity wherein the tariff becomes due for renewal only on the identical date of every single month, equivalent to the postpaid tariff cycle.
Currently, most of the prepaid tariff packs come with a predefined validity period of 28/56/84 days, but the regulator has received various references concerning the 28-day validity pack, which is touted as a month-to-month pack. Customers have highlighted that with 28-day validity pack, which is the most prominent tariff program, they have to do 13 recharges in a year. If the recharge can be carried out on a month-to-month basis, only 12 recharges have to be made in a year.
For postpaid tariffs, the billing cycle functions on a month-to-month basis, irrespective of the quantity of days in a month. When Trai asked the operators about the feasibility of providing a month-to-month validity prepaid pack, the telcos expressed their inability to do so. They pointed out that in prepaid services, there has to be clarity and objectivity in the duration for which the services are to be provided and with ‘month’ obtaining variable quantity of days, it should really not be the basis of charges of prepaid services.
Telcos also highlighted that in contrast to postpaid services, exactly where a notion of fixed billing cycle on a month-to-month basis is followed, prepaid services resume from the date of recharge and adhere to the validity period of tariff expressed in terms of quantity of days rather than a fixed month-to-month billing period. Even in case a 30-day tariff providing is mandated, buyers will have to recharge more than as soon as in months obtaining 31 days.
But in an international assessment of prepaid tariffs, Trai discovered out that one operator in the UK offers ‘pay as you go’ tariffs for duration of a month and the tariffs renew automatically on the identical day of every single month, which in practice is equivalent to postpaid services. Verizon USA also follows a month-to-month method for charging its prepaid services.
“Thus, considering the international practices and considering the fact that tariffs for postpaid services are also fixed on a monthly basis despite the changing number of days in different months, some of the concerns of the telecom service providers may be misplaced,” Trai mentioned in a consultation paper on the situation.
All the stakeholders, which includes telcos, can submit their comments on the situation by June 11.