Last year in December, TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) amended tariff rules to mandate mobile service providers to issue a separate plan for voice calls and SMS, for customers who do not require data. This new amendment was introduced particularly for elderly persons or those living in rural areas.
To abide by this rule telecom companies Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea have introduced new voice and SMS-only plans but that didn’t settle well with users as the plans announced were not quite affordable while the other complaint raised by users was that the previous plans were replaced with more expensive alternatives or the cost has not changed much and the telecom companies have just removed the data benefits.
TRAI seems to have taken note of these new recharge plans introduced by Jio, Airtel, and Vi as in an official X post TRAI has asked service providers to report about these new SMS and voice-only packs within seven working days from the date of launch.
https://twitter.com/TRAI/status/1882717102391570922
The recently launched voucher will then be examined by TRAI as per extant regulatory provisions. Jio’s voice and SMS-only packs include Rs 458 and Rs 1958, Airtel’s voice and SMS-only packs include Rs 509 and Rs 1999 while Vi has only one such plan- Rs 1460 that offers SMS and voice-only benefits. All these telecom companies are expected to share these newly listed recharge plans with TRAI soon.
