TRAI Rule: SIM Disconnection after 90 Days of Inactivity & Low Balance

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) has come up with series of regulatory guidelines pertaining to inactive prepaid mobile connections.

TRAI’s rule are going to be binding on every service provider where the SIMs being inactive for more than 90 days, are going to be deactivated only after giving a 15 days of grace period. The grace period is given in order to let consumers take desired action for their inactive SIM.

So what constitutes usage?

The guidelines have clearly mentioned the following actions which do not make the SIM inactive.

• When incoming as well as outgoing of voice and video call are made

• When messages are sent (outgoing)

• When there is data and VAS usage

• For postpaid connections, only rental payments become the criteria.

However, beyond laying down the aforesaid guidelines, it is up to the service provider to freely lay any other guideline which they deem fit and appropriate.

The guidelines have equally necessitated for prepaid consumers to have a minimum of Rs 20 as balance or else it becomes the base for deactivation of the SIM. Thanks to the facility of “Automatic Number Retention Scheme”, consumers with prepaid connection can continue to retain the number after paying the requisite charges.

 The series of guidelines has clearly laid out an important fact relating towards maintaining the transparency of the whole process as it has directed the service providers to lay out the terms and conditions in a clear and concise manner in order to avoid any sort of confusion later on.

Another highlight of the guidelines relates to the “Safe Custody Scheme” which is purely meant for the postpaid consumers after payment of requisite charges. The best thing about this scheme is that consumers will be saved from paying monthly rentals during this period. Great, isn’t it?

Telecom Consumers Protection (Sixth Amendment) Regulations, 2013 has the detailed rules. These guidelines have been made in order to protect the interest of consumers as there have been various reports of malpractices by the telecom providers of late. These guidelines are equally done in order to address the concerns of providers who have been quite concerned about the increasing numbers of deactivation of SIMs.

TRAI in its guidelines have clearly raised the concern over the lack of transparency since ordinary consumers are not updated and informed about the terms and conditions related with the disconnections of their prepaid mobile. It is to be noted that as the account is deactivated, the consumers loose the account balance as well, thereby giving them additional inconvenience too.

There are various NRIs who have Indian bank accounts and just by paying a nominal sum of money, they can run their accounts in a smooth and polished manner. As mostly, they only pay visit once or twice a year.

Therefore, TRAI has come out with the welcome guidelines which are surely going to ease the whole functioning. These guidelines were certainly the need of the hour which will surely arm consumers’ with series of steps as they will prove to be a great source of help for them.