Recently, multiple reports claiming that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued new guidelines regarding SIM cards is going viral on the social media.
These reports claim that under the new TRAI guidelines, SIM cards will remain valid for a span of 90 days even if the recharge is not done.
Truth behind the viral reports:
As per PIB fact check, the claims made in these reports are misleading. This regulation was introduced 11 years ago in order to ensure automatic retention of the number even during periods of non-usage, provided the minimum balance requirement is met.
On 23rd January, Thursday, TRAI has shared a post addressing the misleading information. The post reads, “As per TCPR (6th amendment), no mobile connection of a prepaid consumer is de-activated for non-usage for minimum period of ninety days if amount exceeding twenty rupees or such lesser amount is available in account of such consumer. This amendment is 11 years old regarding non deactivation of connection/ Automatic number retention in case of non-usage provided minimum balance is maintained.”
Additionally, TRAI has directed all the telecom operators to introduce a voucher for voice calls and SMS, in order to ensure that the consumers who don’t require data won’t get charged for it. As per the guidelines, these new packs should be reported to TRAI within seven working days from their launch date.
“Further to give consumers and option to pay only for service they require, TRAI has mandated a voucher exclusively for voice and SMS so that consumers not in need of data need not pay for it. It has come to notice of TRAI that recently few service providers have launched voice and SMS only packs which will be reported to TRAI with in seven working days from the date of launch. The recently launched vouchers will be examined by TRAI as per extant regulatory provisions,” TRAI stated.