Airtel to provide detailed bills to prepaid customers

TRAI continued with its improvement spree and had asked telecom services in the country to offer transparency in the services offered to prepaid mobile users, at the start of the year. The body had issued a directive to all mobile phone operators that it will be mandatory to provide accurate updates of calls and data downloads. The duration of calls, charges deduction, remaining balance, and so on would be the data on display. Airtel is the first company to come forward to implement the changes as directed by TRAI. The telecom operator has now announced that it will follow these instructions and has launched its online self-care centre, which will provide prepaid mobile users bills and other details of the account, reports The Deccan Herald.

Detailed usage for pre-paid users

TRAI had also asked the telecom to provide a detailed bill to prepaid users and charges of the bill shouldn’t be more than Rs.50. A statement issued by Airtel reveals that, “Prepaid My Account is a simple, secure and convenient way for Airtel prepaid mobile customers to access a whole host of functionalities including checking balance, recharging, starting or stopping VAS services (value added services) etc. Airtel prepaid mobile customers can visit the new self care website to receive and activate customized offers on 'My Airtel, My Offer’ (MAMO), view tariff and top up options, request for the itemized bill and more"

As per reports, “Customers can also view last 5 recharge details. So far, there was no regulatory guideline to provide pre-paid customers itemised bills who had no record of their calls and other services.” The telecom ministry has been bringing in newer, more stringent regulations for the operators. It wants operators to maintain transparency by publishing their tariff in newspapers and also not charging its users additional amount on calls/messages on special occasions.

Following telecom department’s decision of allocating newer numbers to operators, Airtel along with Vodafone had also announced that any number inactive for 60 days will be discontinued with services. This could be of major concern to those with multiple SIMs, with a SIM dedicated only for travelling.