'Over 12K complaints against telcos for billing issues'

Sectoral regulator Trai has received around 12,292 complaints against telecom operators relating to billing tariff, wrong charging and value added services (VAS) in the last four years.
Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to Lok Sabha that a total of 8,756 complaints were received in Trai during 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 whereas 3,566 complaints were received for the current year 2013-14 up to February 7, 2014.
Bharti Airtel is leading with a total of 3,437 complaints received against it followed by Vodafone, against which 2,190 complaints were received in the same period.

Reliance Communications has 1,783 complaints against it, Tata Teleservices has 1,706, Idea has 920 whereas state-run players BSNL and MTNL have 941 and 172 complaints against them respectively.
"The total number of complaints received by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in respect of major service providers during the last three years and the current year relate to billing tariff, wrong charging and VAS, including charging higher call rates," Deora said.
Deora said Trai has prescribed the framework and procedure for redressal of complaints of telecom consumers through the "Telecom Consumer Complaint Redressal Regulations, 2012" dated January 5, 2012.

As per the regulations, the telecom operators and broadband providers have to set up complaint centre in each service area, with toll free consumer care number.

The Centre is required to redress the complaints within the timeframe prescribed by Trai and in case the consumer is not satisfied with the redressal, he can file an appeal with the Appellate Authority of the service provider.
"In accordance with these regulations, the service providers have set up the complaint centres and have appointed the Appellate Authorities," Deora added.