New
Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI has initiated an
exercise to go deep into the plethora of lifetime
validity offers being offered by all the telecom operators
and asses their viability.
TRAI has decided to see whether the concept of lifetime
validity, being offered by the mobile operators on
pre-paid cards with one time entry fee, was viable
and is likely to give its verdict in a day or so.
Tata
Teleservices was the first player to offer a two-year
validity on its pre-paid card, which the Cellular
Operators Association of India (COAI) termed as predatory
pricing. However, no operator could stand losing the
race in adding new subscribers to their fold and this
virtually triggered tariff war among the service providers.
Airtel
went one better and came out with a lifetime validity
card with a one-time fee of Rs999 followed by Hutch,
Reliance Infocomm, Tatas and also by the state run
companies MTNL and BSNL to join the war.
Tata-Birla
owned Idea cellular went a step ahead of others by
offering similar services in both pre-paid and post-paid
segments raising doubt over the viability of these
schemes.
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