Airtel, Jio, Vodafone Idea must offer voice, SMS-only plans from October 21: TRAI

From around October 21 this year, telecom operators in India, including Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea, will be required to offer a wider range of voice and SMS-only recharge plans, giving customers who don’t need mobile data more affordable options. This follows an amendment by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to its existing consumer protection regulations, notified on September 21, coming into effect 30 days after its gazette publication.

The amended rule says every telecom company must offer voice-and-SMS-only plans for every validity period of 30 days or less that matches a regular voice-SMS-data plan they already offer. These plans should also renew on the same date every month, and if that date doesn’t fall in a particular month, the plan should renew on the last day of that month instead.

Apart from these shorter plans, companies must also offer at least one longer voice-and-SMS-only plan, matching the validity of any longer data-bundled plan they already sell.

On pricing, TRAI has given telecom companies broad guidance rather than fixed instructions. It has suggested that companies base their price cuts on the average revenue they earn per subscriber per GB of data, a figure that TRAI itself publishes from time to time.

TRAI’s own data shows why the pricing benchmark it has suggested - average revenue per GB of data - has been on a steady decline.

According to the regulator’s Performance Indicators report for January-March 2026, the average revenue telecom companies earned per GB of wireless data fell from ₹9.11 in March 2025 to ₹7.51 in March 2026, even as overall monthly ARPU (average revenue per user) rose from ₹183 to ₹196.04 over the same period.

This is largely because data consumption itself has risen. Average usage per subscriber increased from 25.70 GB to 26.70 GB a month between the two most recent quarters, and total wireless data usage across the country grew 6.31% quarter-on-quarter.

How did the amendment come about?

In December 2024, TRAI had already ordered telecom companies to offer at least one Special Tariff Voucher (STV) that covered only voice and SMS, with a validity of up to 365 days. The idea was to help customers such as elderly people, rural residents, and feature phone users who don’t need data services.

However, TRAI found that telecom companies did not fully follow the spirit of that rule. Most companies only launched one or two voice-and-SMS-only plans, and these came with long validities of around 80-84 days or 336-365 days. Shorter plans were not offered.

TRAI also noted that when these plans were first introduced, companies did not reduce the price by much, even though data was excluded. Prices were only lowered later, after “public discontent”, said TRAI in an explanatory memorandum issued by it along with the amendment.

Following complaints from consumers and consumer groups asking for shorter voice-and-SMS-only plans, TRAI released a draft amendment on April 7, 2026. The draft proposed that telecom companies must offer such plans for every validity period that they already offer for regular voice-SMS-data bundles, with prices reduced “largely proportional” to the removal of data.

The public was asked to send in comments by April 28, which was later extended to May 5, with counter-comments allowed until May 12. TRAI received 1,132 responses in total from telecom companies, industry associations, consumer groups, and others. An Open House Discussion was also held on 15th June 2026 to hear stakeholders directly.

Different views from stakeholders

Many consumer groups supported the draft, saying that voice-and-SMS-only plans were too limited compared to data-bundled plans, and that customers were often forced to buy data they didn’t need.

On the other hand, some stakeholders argued there was little real demand for such plans, pointing to India’s push for digital inclusion and services like telemedicine and banking that need internet access.

Others warned that cheaper, short-validity voice-and-SMS-only plans could be misused by telemarketers and increase spam calls. Some telecom companies also said that mandating a fixed price cut would count as indirect price control, going against TRAI’s usual policy of letting companies set their own tariffs.

After reviewing all the feedback, TRAI decided not to enforce a “largely proportional” price cut, since data plans can be structured differently, making a fixed formula impractical. Instead, it has told companies to offer “appropriate” price reductions.

The regulator also said that, unlike what some stakeholders had asked for, it does not see a need to review this rule after six months. However, it added that the provisions can still be reviewed by the Authority in the future, whenever it feels the need to do so.