TRAI orders call, SMS, data usage details to be given to prepaid users

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been, off late working very hard towards improving the affairs of telecom services in the country. So, while last week was about a new set of stringent rules being put forth to discipline the ways of telecom, by the way of Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations, 2012; this week's about bringing transparency in the services offered to the prepaid mobile service users in the country, according to an official post on the TRAI website.

Newer initiatives to the fore 

Now, according to a directive issued by TRAI to all mobile phone operators, it will be mandatory for them to provide accurate updates regarding all the calls made and data downloads - each time voice and data services are consumed by a user. All the details, reportedly will be sent to the users via an SMS or via a USSD based flash message. These messages will include details like - the duration of calls or data usage (2G/3G), the charges deducted and the remaining prepaid account balance. This move will allow prepaid users to have an account of all the charges that have been levied on them.

Among other changes that have been added, the TRAI has decided to make identifying vouchers an easy task for the consumers, and hence have decided to take up colour coding. There will now be a colour band code with colours like red, green and yellow placed on the reverse of the voucher to differentiate between a Plan Voucher, Top Up Voucher and Special Tariff Vouchers.