Tech Shout!

Here’s one more news in the spate of “Lifetime validity� offers, however it may not be that pleasant a piece of news.

Sometime back TRAI planned to inspect the viability of the different lifetime validity options. In response to that The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has apparently agreed that the lifetime plans of the cellular operators can only be offered during the lifetime of their license, and the extent of the lifetime plans of different operators will vary in their validity duration. The service providers cannot commit to a service offering beyond the lifetime of their license. Licenses are issued for a period of 20 years, with the first set of telecom licenses being issued in 1994-95.

Service providers, both GSM and CDMA operators have informed TRAI that the tariff plans for “lifetime validity” can be altered by them anytime, and that under existing laws service providers are required to ensure that tariffs for lifetime validity plans remain unchanged only for a period of six months from the time a subscriber buys such a plan.

These tariff plans have been made keeping in mind the present licensing, regulatory and interconnect user charge rules. If any of this were to change in the future, the service providers have made it clear that the tariff packages will be altered.