Provide phone bills free of cost: Trai

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today mandated all service providers to provide a hard copy of the bill free of cost to its post-paid subscribers.

The order, effective from January 24,  would be enforceable across all types of tariff plans of mobile--GSM and CDMA--and fixed line services, Trai announced in a statement today.

Trai had proposed an amendment to Telecommunication Tariff Order early this month under which a hard copy or printed copy of the bill is required to be given free of cost to all postpaid customers of telecom access service.

The provision of the hard copy of bills would enable customers to understand and satisfy themselves about the genuineness of the bill. They would be able to verify charges made in the bill and facilitate the making of payments, among other things.

The regulator observed in its statement that the service providers in other sectors such as power, gas, water utility services did not charge for providing hard copies of bills.

The hard copy of the bill would always be required, as not every telecom subscriber would have an access to the computer and internet to obtain their bill through e-mail, it said.

The provision of itemised bill in respect of long-distance calls free of cost had already been mandated, it added.