Grahakjago (S.K.Virmani)©

Value Added Services (VAS) – Unethical Trade Practices of activation and renewal without seeking subscriber’s consent - Is it not the Anti-consumer Practices by the Telecom Service Providers? The Telecom Industry has grown over a period. With growth of telecom industry, the problem being faced by the subscribers also have increased with newer and newer problems. The total number of mobile subscribers is estimated to be about 90 crores. More than 96% of the mobile subscribers are in the category of prepaid connection. More than 70% of the subscribers belong to under privileged class of society.            One of the unethical practices being followed by the telecom service provider is the activation of certain Value Added Services (chargeable) without seeking the subscribers consent. As per TRAI Regulations, the Telecom Service Providers are prohibited from activation of any Value Added Services (VAS) which is on a ...

This news has appeared in theNavbharat Times dtd. 31st May 2012. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is the regulatory body in the Telecom Sector. One of the objective as per TRAI Act is to protect the interest of consumers. In my view the TRAI has failed to protect the interest of consumers as is quite evident from the above news report. It is not only that there is a failure in implementation of its regulations on MNP i.e Mobile Number Portability but also several other regulations. Few of them could be "Activation of VAS (Value Added Services", Unsolicited Commercial call (UCC) and all the three regulations were meant to protect consumers from unethical business practices. TRAI itself have confirmed under RTI that 5 regulations in UCC i.e Unsolicited Commercial Communications have not been implementable as no grievance redressal mechanism has been thought of. Is it not a joke with the 100 crore consumers??? Agreed, certain steps are forgotton at the time of making reg...