Trai asks Bharti Airtel to report on segmented offers

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked Bharti Airtel to furnish details of all the segmented tariff plans that the operator has offered to its subscribers by March 25. In a letter to the country’s largest telecom operator on Thursday, Trai asked whether the operator has offered such segmented tariff plans to its customers and in which circles of the total 22 that Bharti operates in. “Trai has also asked Bharti whether such offers have been reported to the regulator as well as the criteria of classification of customers for availing such offers. The authority also wants to know the number of subscribers who have opted for segmented offers and what benefits do they get from it,” a source said. The regulator has many times reiterated its stand that segmented offers have to be reported by operators saying that “the offer of a discount is effectively the offer of a new tariff”. “The authority is of the opinion that segmented offers, which have to be necessarily transparent and non-arbitrary, either for retention or acquisition of new customers, are to be transparently filed with Trai in accordance with the reporting requirement.

All such segmented tariffs are to be publicly displayed on the operator’s portal, for transparent and complete disclosure to consumers, without any discrimination,” a Trai official said. There can be segmented offers for a valid class like women or soldiers etc, but there cannot be offers that differentiate one person from the other, he added.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India