The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
has today released The Telecom Consumers Protection (Tenth Amendment)
Regulations, 2016 for permitting the Special Data Vouchers with longer
validity of 365 days.
2. The present regulatory regime governed by TCPR-2012 allows Telecom
Service Providers to offer data services in the form of Special Tariff Voucher
(STV) either exclusively or in combination with other tariff items with a
maximum permitted validity of 90 days. Requests were received in TRAI
seeking longer validity for data-packs (i.e. Special Tariff Vouchers with only
data benefits) primarily to address the concern of marginal consumers of
wireless Internet who prefer lower denomination data packs with longer
validity.
3. After undertaking a consultation process TRAI has notified the 10th
Amendment to the TCPR permitting the maximum validity of 365 days for
data only STVs instead of prevailing maximum validity of 90 days.
4. The "Telecom Consumers Protection (Tenth Amendment) Regulations,
2016" is available on TRAI website http://www. trai.gov.in. For any further
clarifications please contact Smt Vinod Kotwal, Advisor (Financial and
Economic Analysis Division), TRAIon 011-23230752.