Trai asks telcos to stop misleading tariff ads

In a bid to curtail ostensible advertising and enhance transparency in tariff offers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today issued directions to all mobile operators on 'preventing misleading tariff advertisements'.

The telecom regulator has directed operators that advertisements published by them are transparent, non-misleading and unambiguous, disclose all information in unambiguous manner, and contain the website address and customer care number of the operator.

"Advertisements issued in vernacular languages contain all the mandatory disclosures in the same vernacular language," Trai said.

As per Trai, a tariff advertisement can be termed misleading if it induces a consumer to subscribe to a plan, which he would not have otherwise subscribed, contains an untrue statement, omits a material fact and fails to disclose attached restrictions.

The regulator said that advertising a particular call rate as 'per second' or 'per minute' would be misleading in cases where the pulse rate is higher than 'one second' or 'one minute'.

"Thus, declaration of call rate as 'half paisa or one-fourth paisa per second' would mislead if the actual rate is 1 paisa per two seconds or 1 paisa per for seconds," Trai said. It also added example of misleading case where promise is made for 1 paisa per SMS if it is applicable only after the first SMS which is charged at the base rate or higher rate.

Trai has asked service providers to keep a record of the specimen of every tariff related advertisement and carry out an internal audit to check if all the guidelines are met.