The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released the Draft Telecom Consumer Protection (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulation, 2026.
TRAI said that it had earlier issued the Telecom Consumer Protection (twelfth Amendment) Regulation, 2024 wherein the Authority mandated that every telecom service provider shall offer at least one Special Tariff Voucher exclusively for Voice and SMS.
It said that subsequent to this, it is observed that only a few Special Tariff Vouchers (STVs) are being offered for Voice and SMS.
The TRAI said that thereafter, several representations have been received, expressing a need for shorter-duration Voice and SMS only packs.
The TRAI said that the authority considers it necessary to address this issue by mandating that for every unique validity period offered under Special Tariff Vouchers with Voice, SMS and Data, the service provider shall also offer a corresponding Special Tariff Voucher exclusively for Voice and SMS. The authority added that such Special Tariff Vouchers shall be priced with a largely proportional reduction in tariff.
The Draft has been placed on TRAI’s website. Stakeholders are requested to provide their written comments by the 28th of this month. Comments may be submitted electronically to Advisor (Financial and Economic Analysis), TRAI, Vijay Kumar, at [email protected].
