The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday said it has sent an advisory to all telecom operators asking them to launch at least one pack (special tariff voucher or STV) of data services with a validity of 365 days.
The advisory comes after operators’ requested TRAI last year for longer validity for STVs with only data benefits, for certain category of consumers who prefer lower denomination data packs with longer validity, a TRAI official said here.
Following a consultation process in August last year, TRAI had notified the 10th amendment to Telecom Consumers Protection Regulations (TCPR), allowing a maximum validity of 365 days for data-only STVs instead of the earlier one of 90 days, the official said on the sidelines of an event to launch apps.
“TRAI has sent an advisory to telecom operators for implementing at least one STV with a single payment, providing exclusive data benefits for 365 days,” the senior official said.
The telecom regulator on Monday launched three new apps — MyCall, MySpeed and Do Not Disturb (DND 2.0) — to help customers rate quality, speed and performance of services.
MyCall is an Android application for crowd-sourced voice-call quality monitoring. The application will help mobilephone users rate their experience on voice-call quality in real time and help TRAI gather customer experience data along with network data.
Callers can also provide additional details, such as noise or audio delay, or mark a call-drop, TRAI said.
MySpeed will enable TRAI to obtain test data from users in all service areas, without any action by the users. The crowd-sourced data so collected can be viewed in aggregated form on an interactive map-based portal.
The DND service app will enable users to register their mobile number to avoid unsolicited commercial communication/telemarketing calls/SMS, the regulator said.
Reaching out to DND subscribers can result in a heavy fine for telemarketers.
TRAI also updated it’s website with additional features such as free online subscription to TRAI releases, online submission of comments on TRAI consultation papers, a blog with facility for registered users to comment, and online registration for participating in open-house discussions.