Hyderabad: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mandated telecom companies to offer recharge plans exclusively for voice calls and messages without any compulsion to buy internet data. On Wednesday morning, ETV Bharat spotted two prepaid plans on Bharti Airtel's website offering only voice and SMS benefits without any data, suggesting it revised two of its existing prepaid plan offerings to comply with the new guidelines.
The listing suggested that Airtel simply removed data benefits from plans worth Rs 509 and Rs 1,999 to make them voice and SMS-only packs. Since the updated plans offered fewer benefits with the same cost as before, this move was interpreted as a kind of tariff hike. However, Airtel reached out to ETV Bharat to clarify that it was a technical glitch and it has not made any changes to the packs.
Airtel plans worth Rs 509 and Rs 1,999 have been removed from the official website. The company did not clarify whether these packs will be added back after a supposed correction or if it plans to list the updated packs at a later date.
"It was a technical glitch due to which the plans were visible on the website. The same has been taken down from the website now," Airtel said in a statement.
Airtel's Rs 509 prepaid plan
Airtel's Rs 509 prepaid plan offered unlimited voice calls and 900 SMS for a validity period of 84 days. The updated plan on the website did not come with any data benefit, appearing to fulfil TRAI's requirement of companies serving voice and SMS-only packs for people who do not need data benefits. Earlier, this pack used to offer 6GB of data.