Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL
Are you a Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vodafone or BSNL customer? Here’s a new for you. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India wants the telecom operators to stop the practice of giving the paper bill to postpaid customers. For this, TRAI has sought public views on making paper bills for post-paid telecom services optional and setting electronic bills as a default option.
The telecom regulator said in its consultation paper that environmental concerns relating to cutting of trees for papers used in the printing of bills and changing mobile usage scenario in the context of a massive surge in data usage on smartphones were put forth to bolster their demand as the main rationale to this demand, PTI reported.
Trai said it received representations from telecom service providers requesting a review of the provision of the Telecom Tariff order which mandates provision of hard copy of the bill or the printed copy of the bill to post-paid subscribers and removal of the mandate of providing hard copy of the bill with Mobile Bill (M-Bill) or E-Bill as the default option.
“Is there a need to change the extent default option, i.E., provision of the paper bill without any charge to postpaid subscribers of wireline and mobile services?” and “should e-bill now be made the default option?” Trai has asked in its consultation paper.
“Authority has recently received twenty-four similar representations from Hon’ble MPs/MLAs/MLCs, some prominent citizens and telecom service providers, who have argued that doing away with mandatory provision of hard copy of bill, would be in tune with ‘Digital India Mission’, apart from addressing a serious environmental concern,” Trai said.
The regulator said that consumers form the most important segment of stakeholders on this issue and therefore Trai has decided to hold a public consultation to have views of all the stakeholders, in the matter so that a holistic approach could be adopted to address this important issue affecting Telecom consumer’s rights.
The last date for public comments on the paper is December 10 and for counter comments is December 24, 2018.
Call drops
The telecom department will hold a meeting with mobile operators this month to discuss several issues like quality of service, a top official said Friday.
“Quality of service is a big concern. We will meet telecom service providers this month to discuss this and several other issues like fiber first, digitalization,” Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan told reporters on the sidelines.
