Telcos start tweaking offerings to adhere to new Trai norms
The country's nine telcos combined have tens of thousands of plans, each with some discount or the other
New Delhi: In a direct consequence of the telecom regulator’s Monday order, barring differential pricing for Internet data, telcos have started pruning their offerings.
“It means going through hundreds of plans to make sure that they adhere to the new rules. However, we have six months to complete the task," an official with one of the major telcos said.
The country’s nine telcos combined have tens of thousands of plans, each with some discount or the other. One way to incentivise adoption and use of the Internet over the mobile phone is by offering deep discounts for use of popular services like Facebook and WhatsApp.
“Nothing contained in these regulations shall affect any packs, plans or vouchers with unexpired validity subscribed by a consumer before the date of commencement of these regulations, provided that no such pack, plan or voucher shall be valid beyond a period of six months from the date of commencement of these regulations," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its regulations.
Telcos like Bharti Airtel Ltd have been offering differential pricing on in-house apps like Wynk, while Reliance Jio Infocomm was expected to heavily leverage content from sister companies like Network 18 to sell its services.
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