Bring back voice and SMS-only packs, asks TRAI

Mumbai: The telecom regulator on Friday floated a consultation paper, seeking views on bringing back the yesteryear voice and SMS-only packs, saying the current bundled offerings may be forcing many phone subscribers to pay for services they don’t use.

“…it is noticed that tariff offers available in market are broadly bundled tariff offerings having mix of voice, data, SMS and OTT services, etc., which may not fulfil the requirements of a large number of subscribers as all services may not be required by all subscribers and there is a perception that subscribers are being made to pay for services that are not required by them,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in the consultation paper.