Indian Telcos Push Back On TRAI Voice-Only Tariff Plan

TRAI Tariff Draft Draws A Three-Operator Objection

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have pushed back against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s plan to require broader voice-and SMS-only tariff vouchers.

The dispute centers on TRAI’s Draft Telecom Consumer Protection (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulation, 2026, which would make operators offer a voice-and SMS-only Special Tariff Voucher for every validity period currently sold with data bundles.

The operators opposed the proposal during an open-house discussion on June 15, 2026.

Their common position is that a mandated standalone voice and SMS structure would be anti-consumer, technically impractical and inconsistent with tariff forbearance.

TRAI’s draft would also require proportionately lower pricing and prominent display of the vouchers across customer touchpoints.

This is not a first-round dispute.

In 2024, TRAI mandated an initial voice-and SMS-only voucher after private operators objected and state-owned BSNL supported the measure.

TRAI said the policy addressed a roughly 150 million-strong group of basic-phone and feature-phone subscribers whose service needs do not include mobile data.

Pricing, Validity And Data Use Are The Core Friction Points

TRAI is now trying to expand the earlier mandate because it found that operators offered only a handful of such vouchers.

The available plans clustered around two long-duration windows: 80 or 84 days on one side, and 336 or 365 days on the other.

TRAI also found that tariffs were not cut proportionately when data was removed.

Jio’s technical argument is tied to network design.

The company said 4G and 5G networks are fully Internet Protocol-based, with voice running as an application over the data bearer, so separating voice from data is artificial.

Jio also warned that cheap, short-validity voice and SMS packs could lower the barrier for fraudsters, spam and cyber fraud.

The company added a usage claim to that argument: 88% of its entry-level subscribers actively use data.

Airtel framed the same issue as a digital-inclusion risk, saying India’s public digital infrastructure is mobile-data-driven.

Vodafone Idea warned that background app activity, software updates and one-time password services could push customers into unexpected pay-as-you-go charges.

Consumer Groups Say Bundles Shift Costs To Low-Data Users

Consumer rights groups and NGOs argued from the opposite side of the market.

Their position is that millions of low-income, rural and elderly subscribers must pay for unused data, effectively subsidising heavier data users through unused entitlements.

Coverage is another part of the consumer case.

In tribal, remote and hilly regions, towers may not provide reliable data service even when users buy bundles that include data.

Consumer groups also pointed to entry-level packs costing around Rs 94-99 per GB, above per-GB rates on premium plans.

The disagreement leaves TRAI with a narrower decision than it faced in 2024.

The regulator has already accepted the case for mandatory voice-and SMS-only packs.

The question now is how strictly it will set validity, pricing and visibility rules after weighing operator objections and consumer submissions.

The Next Test Is How Far TRAI Pushes Pricing Discipline

The outcome will affect more than one voucher category.

If TRAI requires proportionately cheaper voice-and SMS-only packs across every bundled-plan validity period, operators will have less room to use data bundles as the default entry point for prepaid users.

If the regulator softens the amendment, Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea would retain more pricing flexibility while basic-phone and low-data users remain dependent on a small number of long-validity options.

The next concrete checkpoint is TRAI’s final notification of the amendment after reviewing the June 15 submissions.