The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its Performance Indicator Report (June 2014 – September 2014), has stated that subscribers of Vodafone India, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have reported maximum discrepancies in their phone bills.

According to TRAI guidelines, not more than 0.1 per cent of the total bills generated by a company in a service area should be disputed. As per the data provided in the report, 0.18 per cent of Vodafone’s post paid customers in Andhra Pradesh circle, 0.33 per cent in Assam circle and 0.24 in North East circles circle disputed their bills. Meanwhile, 0.19 per cent post paid customers of Idea Cellular in Andhra Pradesh, 0.11 per cent in Gujarat and 0.13 per cent in Kerala filed a complaint about their phone bills. Further, over 1 per cent of prepaid customers of BSNL raised issues in Kolkata and 0.24 per cent in West Bengal raised issue regarding their bills.

TRAI guidelines also state that if a customer raises any dispute regarding the bill, companies must resolve the issue within four to six weeks. As per the data, BSNL was unable to resolve billing disputes within 4 weeks in 10 out of 22 telecom circles in the country which include Bihar, Kolkata, Northeast, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh (West) and West Bengal. Further, there were no records of BSNL available for Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan circles. Meanwhile, TTSL failed to resolve billing dispute in Mumbai and Maharashtra circles for both CDMA and GSM services, Kolkata circle for CDMA and in Tamil Nadu circle for GSM services.