TRAI wants to increase the availability of cheap voice and SMS only plans for customers, but the country’s major telecom companies Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea have opposed this proposal. Companies say that it is not practical to separate voice and data services in the existing mobile network. At the same time, consumer organizations claim that millions of people are paying for such data benefits which they do not even use.
What changes does TRAI want to make?
According to the Economic Times report, the Draft Telecom Consumer Protection Thirteenth Amendment Regulation 2026 was considered in TRAI’s open house discussion held on June 15. Under this proposal, telecom companies will have to provide separate voice and SMS recharge plans in different validity periods. TRAI wants such plans to be cheaper than bundled plans with data and to be easily visible to customers. The regulator believes that this will benefit those consumers who only need calling and messaging and who do not use data services.
Why did Jio, Airtel and Vi object?
According to the report, telecom companies have demanded TRAI not to interfere in tariff design. He says that the price and structure of the plan should be decided according to the market demand. Reliance Jio reportedly said that today’s 4G and 5G networks are based on a similar Internet Protocol architecture, so it is not easy to completely separate voice and data services. The company also expressed concern that low-cost voice and SMS plans could be misused for spam and fraud. According to Jio, 88 percent of its entry level customers use mobile data and there is limited demand for voice plans only. At the same time, Vodafone Idea said that due to activities like background process, software download and authentication in the smartphone, some data is required.
What is the argument of consumer organizations?
Consumer organizations say that there are still 30 to 35 crore feature phone users in the country. Of these, about 10 to 15 crore customers are said to be those who do not use mobile data service. According to the Consumer Protection Association based in Himmatnagar, Gujarat, these consumers are also paying for those facilities which they do not need. The report claims that this class spends around Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore every year on data benefits which are not used.
Consumer organizations also said that internet connectivity is still not consistently available in remote, hilly and tribal areas, while people are forced to buy data-only plans. Their argument is that customers doing entry level recharge have to pay a higher effective cost per GB of data as compared to premium plan customers. Now TRAI will take a final decision on this proposal after reviewing the suggestions received from all parties.
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