The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has published its Draft Telecom Consumers Protection (Eighth Amendment) Regulations, 2015. This comes after TRAI had received several complaints from consumers regarding non-availability of information relating to the amount of data used during a data session.

Under these recommendations, it has proposed that data services should be activated or deactivated only with the explicit consent of the subscriber through toll free short code 1925. The telecom service providers would then follow the prescribed procedures for obtaining explicit consent of the consumer and for deactivation of data. Further, the customers should also be informed through SMS at periodic intervals, not exceeding six months, about the prescribed procedure for deactivation of data.

Presently, the telecom service providers offer concessional tariff for data, up to a certain limit, through special tariff vouchers or data packs and also through certain tariff plans. However, the tariff for any usage beyond the specified limit is substantially higher. In case, the customer does not know about reaching the limit for concessional tariff, it results in substantial charges levied, leading to a higher bill amount.