Telcos in India so far offer prepaid recharges and add-on tariffs in multiples of 28 days, which TRAI says has raised consumer complaints. Indian telcos have been urged by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to revise their prepaid recharge plan validity periods, and switch from the presently existing 28-day recharge periods to a 30-day period for any plan denoted as monthly or multiples of monthly plans.
A statement by the TRAI said, “Every Telecom Service Provider will offer at least one plan voucher, one special tariff voucher and one combo voucher having a validity of thirty days.” The rationale behind this move is to offer plans that will need to be renewed or recharged on the same date on most months in order to present a regularity of the recharge packs on offer.
Why Telcos Prefer 28 Days Validity?
Notably, you will be surprised by the impact caused by the 28-day validity principle. While 30 days validity plans require customers to recharge 12 times a year, those plans with a validity of 28 days require users to recharge 13 times a year. The additional one month of recharge made by customers generates thousands of crores in revenue for the telecom operators.
Crediting the operators, the regulatory body added that the Indian telecom companies have been forthcoming in terms of disclosing to users that the recharge periods are 28 days, instead of a misguiding ‘monthly’ terminology that could have been used in place.
It is important to note that postpaid billing periods are of 30 days, while the 28-day discrepancy remains for prepaid plans only. In this regard, the likes of Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea are likely to introduce new plans with 30-day recharge periods in the coming days.
