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TRAI won’t act on tariff ‘guesswork’, insists on voice-only plans

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The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will not act on speculation about a possible mobile tariff hike, but operators must comply with its rule to offer voice-only plans, TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti told CNBC-TV18 in an interview published on Monday, 5 October 2026.

Tariffs left to operators

Lahoti said tariffs are currently under a forbearance regime, which leaves operators free to set prices. “As far as tariff is concerned, as per the present regulatory provisions, the tariff is under forbearance, which means the tariff is to be decided by operators,” he said.

Asked whether TRAI would step in if operators raised tariffs by 10-15%, Lahoti said the regulator could not decide on the basis of speculation. “We, I don’t think we can act on this based on guesswork,” he said. He added that TRAI would intervene if it saw a need, and noted that Indian tariffs are “probably the lowest in the world” because of strong competition.

No reply yet on voice-only plans

On TRAI’s mandate for voice- and SMS-only plans, Lahoti said the regulator had not received a response from operators, but stressed that the rule has already been issued. “This is a regulation which has already been issued, and the operators are required to comply with this,” he said. CNBC-TV18 noted that the mandate has met industry pushback.

He said the aim is to let consumers subscribe only to services they need, pointing to crores of feature-phone users who do not use data and to elderly subscribers who may not be comfortable with it. “It is important that the consumer has the choice to subscribe to the service they want,” he said.

Data plans stay on sale

TRAI has not asked operators to withdraw plans that bundle data with voice and SMS. Instead, operators must also offer the option of voice-only plans without data. “We haven’t said that you withdraw the plans with data. So their plans with data also remain in the market, and at the same time, they also provide the choice of subscribing to plans without data,” Lahoti said.

“It is the consumer who should be able to choose which plan they want to subscribe,” he added. TRAI has separately ordered telcos to make mandated recharge packs easier to find, CNBC-TV18 said.

Source: CNBC-TV18

Photo: Sristhid / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (resized)

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