Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) have opposed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) proposal to mandate affordable standalone voice and Short Message Service (SMS) plans, calling it anti-consumer, technically impractical, and inconsistent with the regulator’s policy of tariff forbearance. The three operators urged TRAI to hold the status quo at an open-house discussion on June 15, 2026.
What TRAI proposed: The regulator’s Draft Telecom Consumer Protection (Thirteenth Amendment) Regulation, 2026 would require operators to offer a voice-and SMS-only Special Tariff Voucher (STV) for every validity period currently available under bundled plans that include data, to price it proportionately lower, and to display it prominently across customer touchpoints.
The fight is a rerun of one of the operators already lost. When TRAI mandated the first voice-and SMS-only voucher in 2024, every private operator opposed it, and only state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) backed it. TRAI overruled the objections then, citing the roughly 150 million subscribers who use basic or feature phones and do not need data.
The draft now expands that mandate after TRAI found that operators offered only a handful of the vouchers. Operators restricted these to long validity periods of 80 or 84 days and 336 or 365 days and did not cut tariffs proportionately when they removed the data.
The operators are now recycling the same arguments they made and lost in 2024, including Jio’s contention that India differs from markets like the United States (US) because Indians depend on mobile data as essential infrastructure.
The operators’ case:
- Jio called the split technically incompatible with modern networks, arguing that 4G and 5G networks are fully Internet Protocol (IP)-based, so voice runs as an application over the data bearer and separating the two is artificial.
- Jio also flagged fraud risk, warning that cheap, short-validity voice and SMS plans could lower barriers for fraudsters and increase spam and cyber fraud. It added that 88% of its entry-level subscribers actively use data and that existing voice-only plans saw limited demand.
- Vi warned of surprise charges, noting that background data from software updates, app functions, and one-time password (OTP) services could push customers into unanticipated pay-as-you-go billing.
- Airtel argued exclusion from the digital ecosystem, contending that India’s digital public infrastructure is mobile-data-driven and that voice-only plans could create a segment of users cut off from it.
- Jio rejected the international comparison, arguing that India differs from markets such as the United States (US), where users lean on Wi-Fi, since Indians rely on mobile data for Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions, social media, and daily services.
The consumer counter: Consumer rights groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
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