The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai<\/a>) said “time is still not ripe for making an e-bill<\/a> a default option, given the demographic structure of India, its literacy rate, the size of its non-e-literate population, the limitation of senior citizens and disadvantaged groups and the country’s rural population”.
But the sector regulator said telcos can switch to an e-bill only after obtaining “an explicit consent” from the consumer. “If a customer opts for receipt of the bill through e-mail instead of a hard copy, the service provider can supply the same after obtaining explicit consent,” Trai said in a media statement Monday.
The regulator said it “would be unfair” to thrust an e-bill as a default option on unwilling subscribers, especially those without internet access or incapable of making an informed choice between a printed and an electronic bill.
Last November, Trai had received representations from industry associations, MPs, MLAs and prominent citizens to review an extant provision of sending printed phone bills for free to postpaid mobile and landline customers amid changing mobile usage patterns amid surging data usage coupled with environmental issues relating to the cutting of trees for paper used in printing phone bills.
Telcos had cited “environmental concerns regarding cutting of trees for paper and a boost towards a Digital India mission” as reasons for an early migration to e-bills. They had also complained that the cost of printing bills was moving up.
However, the sector regulator said a section of representatives had dismissed the “environmental concerns argument,” contending that “75% of the paper produced in India is from waste\/recycled sources or agricultural residue as the primary raw material” that contributes towards protecting the environment.
Nearly a decade back, Trai had mandated telcos to provide a free hard copy of phone bills to postpaid users through its Telecommunication Tariff (46th Amendment) Order, 2008.
<\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":68561982,"title":"ICRA estimates pricing upticks to drive 6% on-year growth in telecom sector revenue in FY20","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/icra-estimates-pricing-upticks-to-drive-6-on-year-growth-in-telecom-sector-revenue-in-fy20\/68561982","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":"telecomnews"}],"related_content":[],"msid":68563474,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"Landline, postpaid users to continue to receive free printed phone bills: Trai","synopsis":"Landline and postpaid mobile users will continue to receive printed hard copies of phone bills for free with the telecom regulator saying an electronic or `e-bill\u2019 cannot be a default option as it would be an anti-consumer move.","titleseo":"telecomnews\/landline-postpaid-users-to-continue-to-receive-free-printed-phone-bills-trai","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[],"analytics":{"comments":0,"views":110,"shares":0,"engagementtimems":378000,"url":"https:\/\/ettelecom.indiatimes.com\/telecomnews\/landline-postpaid-users-to-continue-to-receive-free-printed-phone-bills-trai\/articleshow\/68563474.cms"},"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"ETTelecom","artdate":"2019-03-25 17:22:03","lastupd":"2019-03-25 17:22:03","breadcrumbTags":["trai","Postpaid","landline","e-bill","policy"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"telecomnews\/landline-postpaid-users-to-continue-to-receive-free-printed-phone-bills-trai"}}" data-news_link="//www.iser-br.com/news/landline-postpaid-users-to-continue-to-receive-free-printed-phone-bills-trai/68563474">