Telecom user education fund stays unused

The telecom regulator appears to have hung up on consumers. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai), one of whose key functions is to protect consumers, has been roosting on a huge corpus fund meant to be spent on consumer education and protection.

The Telecommunication Consumers Education and Protection Fund ( TCEPF), set up in June 2007 under Trai, has been lying virtually idle in Trai's coffers, with the telecom regulator apparently unable to find any cause worthy enough to spend the money on.

The huge corpus fund, which had swelled to over Rs 25 crore as on March 31, 2010, has been depleted by just Rs 9 lakh-odd.

Consumer activists are livid. "There is very little which is being spent on consumer education through the fund allocated for the purpose. Our country is second largest as far as tele- density is concerned and the number of illiterates using mobiles is far more than the literates," says a telecom activist.

Although a large segment of India's over 70 crore mobile subscribers are either illiterate or do not know English, service providers continue to provide critical information, especially on tariff and service charges, only in English. Repeated pleas by various telecom consumers groups to Trai at various forums to ensure that mobile operators flash messages to their subscribers in other local languages also, including Hindi, have not yielded any result yet.

"There are many mobile subscribers who cannot read or understand English. Many subscribers want messages from their operators in Hindi or in other Indian languages also. We have been taking up this issue with Trai and service operators. But they refuse to take it seriously. We doubt their intentions," says Randhir Verma, a TCEPF member.

He said that many consumer organisations have raised this issue at various occasions, including most recently during Trai's session in Chennai last month, which was attended by its chairman, J. S Sarma. But there has been no response from the Trai.

"The purpose for which the fund was created is of no help to consumers. The Trai is suppose to publish about blackout days concerning SMS and voice calls in the newspapers throughout the country and keep a check on operators also. But we don't see that happening.

This is violation of the constitutional right of the consumers to have messages in Hindi also. We want the telecom ministry to step in," says Verma.

The total sum generated by Trai against the fund was Rs 25.84 crore as on March 31, 2010, of which Rs 9.92 lakh was spent on workshops during fiscal 2009-10, according to Trai.

Telecom subscribers, mostly those who are illiterate are kept in the dark about the blackout days. They make calls or send SMS ignorant of the fact that the packages used by them for lowering call rates and SMS are not effective on blackout days.

Telecom operators charge base rates for voice calls and messages on five blackout days in a year, which includes New Year eve and New Year, Valentine's Day, Diwali, Id and Holi. Any packages used to lower the call rates and SMS is not applicable on these days.

Accusing Trai of being hand in glove with operators, consumer groups want Trai to revive the TCEPF. Verma recently wrote to Trai asking for information it has published about black out days in newspapers across the country but got no response. Trai officials were not available for comment.

When asked, some operators expressed ignorance about any such demands having come up before them. But they argued that they offer services through their respective customer care numbers in major Indian languages besides Hindi and English. But the calls made to these helpline are charged.


Courtesy: Mail Today