Trai to restrict multiple talk plans for cellphones

It seems to be raining goodies on mobile phone owners these days. After the bonus of number portability announced earlier, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has announced that it intends to put a cap on the different schemes being offered by the telecom companies to the consumers at large.

There are several aspects of the ‘different schemes’ offered by telecom companies that are confusing if not downright misleading from the consumer’s viewpoint. To start with, the multiplicity of schemes itself leads to a very confusing situation where the new entrant finds it impossible to find his way out of the web of schemes.

There are schemes where the rent is static and the rates of calls are low; there are others where the rent is adjusted against calls made; and still others where SMS is offered at a low rate or caller ID facility is offered free of charge - all this to lure the unwary consumer into a scheme which will make him spend more on his cell phone.

There are some people who have studied the subject in great detail and come to the conclusion that most schemes make very little difference in the final bill of the average consumer who uses his cell phone in a limited manner, though there could be substantial differences in the case of those who use their mobiles or landlines to make a very large number of calls.

Then, there are other schemes, which are available to the privileged few, who the service providers feel are ‘special customers’. These are usually corporates which use a very large number of telephone lines and the sheer volume of calls made by the company in their individual capacity or collectively by their executives in their personal life, leads to special packages tailor-made to suit their needs.

There are sometimes schemes which are revealed to only a select few persons and not available to the common people for reasons best known only to the cell phone companies.

All this is then superseded by the schemes which are sold on door-to-door campaigns by direct sales agents (DSA), many of which are attached with onerous clauses.

In general, the consumer expects and has a right to a small number of ‘talk plans’ from the telecom providers which must be simple to use and easy to understand.

The hidden clauses in the various talk plans amount to unfair trade practice in consumer law and the Trai has done the right thing in suggesting a scheme in which the schemes would be reined in, before the courts are forced to intervene.