In an order issued on Thursday, the regulator said all telecom service providers must create a separate and clearly visible section titled “TRAI-Mandated Packs” on their websites and mobile apps, according to a report by PTI. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has directed telecom operators to prominently display mandatory recharge plans and special tariff vouchers on their websites, mobile applications and exclusive points of sale, following complaints that such plans were difficult for consumers to locate. The tab must appear as the first option in the prepaid recharge section and should also be prominently displayed at other exclusive sales channels.
What these mandatory plans actually are
Operators have been given 30 days to comply. Existing TRAI rules already require every telecom operator to offer, at minimum, one Plan Voucher, one Special Tariff Voucher, and one Combo Voucher, each with a validity of 30 days, renewable on the same date every month. TRAI’s own review of telecom websites and apps confirmed the problem, finding that mandated vouchers were often placed under unrelated categories or required users to click through multiple pages and screens before they could even be located.
Telecom operators must create a separate, clearly visible tab or section titled “TRAI-Mandated Packs,” containing the different types of TRAI-mandated vouchers, according to an official order published Thursday. The regulator said improving visibility and accessibility would particularly benefit budget-conscious consumers, especially those with limited data needs or those in rural areas and feature-phone users, who are most likely to actually want and seek out these standalone, lower-cost plans. Crucially, this section must appear as the first tab under the prepaid recharge section of operator websites and apps, rather than being buried under other categories, and must also be prominently displayed at exclusive points of sale. Separately, operators are also required to offer Special Tariff Vouchers exclusively for voice and SMS, without data bundled in, giving subscribers an option they can use even if they don’t need mobile data — a category TRAI has pushed telcos to expand more aggressively across various validity periods in recent regulatory updates throughout the year.