Trai issues new tariff order for pre-paid top ups

              Mobile phone subscribers will now be able to avail of better value for their pre-paid top ups, according to the new tariff order and direction issued Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)  . As per the recent directives  subscribers are entitled to get full talk time on talk time recharges, besides an administrative fee which varies according to their chosen plan. This cannot however exceed Rs 2 per recharge and applicable taxes.
            At present there is no fixed upper limit on this charge and varies for each operator and type of recharge of talktime. Further, the authority has proposed that no fixed fee other than applicable taxes shall be levied on every top-up.
  
             The new measures are effective from 15 September 2008 and are applicable for all subscribers, new and existing.
              Customers will also be insulated from hikes in any tariff increase for a period of twelve months from the existing 6 month regime according to Trai. The regulatory body has now ordered that a minimum protection period available to a customer from hike in any segment of the tariff  will be  increased to one year.
             To make access to various offers and tariff plans much easier to the consumer, the regulatory body has mandated that no precondition, like sending an SMS, be laid down by the operator of any explicit action by the subscriber to avail of any kind of tariff reductions.
          Consumers could now also have the advantage of not paying a migration fee to enter into a new lifetime validity or unlimited validity plan with lower entry fee as compared with his or her existing lifetime validity plan or unlimited validity plan.Trai has laid down that the service provider shall not levy any upfront payment or recurring charges or fees for allowing such migration.
            Revealing more good news for life-time customers, the authority has said that service providers shall not insist on recharges between periods lesser than six months in life time plans. Further, the service provider would have to remind the customer as and when the due date for the recharge draws near.