The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued notices to leading operators including Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Loop, Reliance Communications and Vodafone, for violating Mobile Number Portability regulations by overcharging and preventing the customers from changing their service provider.
“Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has initiated action by issuing show cause notices to service providers for violation of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Regulations 2009 and the same will follow due process,” said Milind Deora, Minister of State for Communications and IT, in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
MNP service allows users to switch operators without changing their mobile number. Customers can send an SMS to 1900 to request for a Porting code which can be used to switch the operators. Though the regulations say that operators cannot over charge for this SMS, some operators were charging as much as Rs 10. This has been one of the reasons for the notice.
Regulator had on May 24 this year relaxed some norms so that requests are not rejected on trivial grounds. TRAI had issued direction to the operators specifying that rejection under contractual obligation can be done only if the post-paid connection comes with bundled handset with contractual obligation having exit clause and the subscriber has not complied with the same.
It also added the criteria of a corporate connection with contractual obligation having an exit clause and when the subscriber has not complied with the same.
Regarding outstanding payment it specified that if the due from the subscriber, in the previous paid bill, is less than Rs 10, then the service provider may include the same in the subsequent bill of the subscriber without any penal charges.
This move by the regulator proves that its listening, so next time you have a problem just send your feedback to TRAI.