Lifetime validity schemes come under TRAI scrutiny

New Delhi: Telecom regulator TRAI has initiated an exercise to go deep into the plethora of lifetime validity offers being offered by all the telecom operators and asses their viability.
TRAI has decided to see whether the concept of lifetime validity, being offered by the mobile operators on pre-paid cards with one time entry fee, was viable and is likely to give its verdict in a day or so.

Tata Teleservices was the first player to offer a two-year validity on its pre-paid card, which the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) termed as predatory pricing. However, no operator could stand losing the race in adding new subscribers to their fold and this virtually triggered tariff war among the service providers.

Airtel went one better and came out with a lifetime validity card with a one-time fee of Rs999 followed by Hutch, Reliance Infocomm, Tatas and also by the state run companies MTNL and BSNL to join the war.

Tata-Birla owned Idea cellular went a step ahead of others by offering similar services in both pre-paid and post-paid segments raising doubt over the viability of these schemes.