The development comes two days after the regulator had issued notices to Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel on July 11.
A Vodafone shop is closed during a government-imposed nationwide lockdown as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 coronavirus, in New Delhi. (Photo: AFP)
In a fresh development over premium telecom plans, Vodafone Idea has reportedly moved to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), seeking a stay on its notice putting premium plans on hold.
The development comes two days after the regulator had issued notices to Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel on July 11, asking them to hold their tariff plans targeting premium customers.
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“TRAI’s notice says that the premium plans will disrupt the service quality of the plans that are at lower tariffs. The claim in itself is incorrect which we have explained to the TRAI. If a customer pays for 2GB, he gets that much data. A customer paying for 5GB will get 5GB without interfering with the plan of the customer that is paying a lower tariff,” a CNBCTV18 report issued on Tuesday quoted an unnamed Vodafone Idea executive as saying.
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The same report quoted another source in Bharti Airtel as saying that the telco is looking at a legal recourse and may file a case soon.
Another report issued on Business Standard on Tuesday pointed that the mentioned plans promised faster speed to certain premium users, which alarmed TRAI to question whether the preferential treatment for some users came at a cost of deterioration of other users’ services.
The report further quoted a TRAI official as saying, “If the companies can assure that no customer will suffer due to these schemes, they can go ahead,” he added.
Earlier in July, Airtel had announced special offers for post-paid users on its 4G network. With that, the company had promised better speed compared to others. Similarly, Vodafone Idea too had launched several post-paid plans that promised up to 50 per cent faster data speed besides other privileges.
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