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TRAI’s new rules, back to basics: Telecom operators are legally required to offer cheaper, standalone voice-and-SMS-only recharge vouchers instead of unwanted data bundles
AI generated for representation
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has officially issued the Telecom Consumer Protection (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2026, bringing massive relief to nearly 30 crore mobile users, primarily feature phone users and low-income groups, who do not utilise mobile data.
Under this new mandate, telecom operators namely Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) are legally required to offer cheaper, standalone voice-and-SMS-only recharge vouchers to prevent customers from being forced into paying for unwanted data bundles.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE TRAI MANDATE
Proportionate Price Cuts: For every bundled plan that includes voice, SMS, and data, operators must now offer a corresponding voice-and-SMS-only pack at a proportionately lower price.
Mandatory Short-Validity Options: Telecom operators must provide these data-free options for all validity periods of 30 days or less. Previously, most standalone plans were heavily restricted to long-term validities (like 84 or 365 days).
True Monthly Renewal: Operators must offer at least one voice-and-SMS voucher that renews on the exact same date every month, effectively doing away with the rigid 28-day billing cycles for non-data users. If a specific date does not occur in a given month (e.g., February 30th), it will renew on the last day of that month.
Disruption to Tariff Lock-ins: This decision directly tackles recent tariff hikes and operators’ aggressive strategies aimed at forcing 2G feature-phone users onto more expensive 4G/5G data-bundled plans.
This regulatory shift ensures fair telecom pricing, making it significantly cheaper for elderly citizens, rural consumers, and individuals maintaining a cost-effective secondary SIM card to keep their mobile connections active.
Users will soon be able to look up and select these newly structured “Voice-Only” or “Without Data” packages directly via their respective provider’s mobile applications or official websites.
WHY WAS IT NEEDED?
While a previous 2024 regulation required telcos to offer at least one voice-only plan, operators loopholed this by restricting those data-free plans strictly to expensivelong-term options (like 84-day or 365-day packs). Low-income users could not afford these high upfront costs, leaving them with no choice but to buy data-bundled packs just to get a short 28-day validity.
Millions of Indians maintain a secondary SIM card simply to receive incoming banking alerts, text messages, or essential government OTPs. Prior to this mandate, keeping these secondary numbers alive required paying a heavy premium for unused bundled internet data.
Rural populations, elderly citizens, and individuals using basic feature phones were being disproportionately penalised by the lack of unbundled plans, creating an artificial barrier to basic digital inclusion and financial communication.
Quick Answers
Ask News18Under the new TRAI regulations, telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea must offer proportionate, standalone voice-and-SMS-only packs without mandatory internet data bundles. These data-free options must be provided for all validity periods of 30 days or less.
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At the news desk for 20 years, the story of her life has revolved around finding pun, facts while reporting, on radio, heading a daily newspaper desk, teaching mass media students to now editing speci…Read More
September 22, 2026, 7:09 PM IST
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