The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday (1 September) sought stakeholder comments on the changes required in the audit mechanism of metering and billing system of telecom service providers (TSPs).

Around 900 million active subscribers of Reliance Jio, Bharati Airtel and Vodafone-Idea stand to benefit from the TRAI audit that aims to protect customers from bill shocks, especially in case of data services.

“The focus of the consumer has shifted from voice to data. Thus, there is a need to review the quality of service (code of practice for metering and billing accuracy regulations, 2006)," quoted Livemint from a TRAI consultation paper.

Since the distribution of prepaid and post paid users in different tariff plans is highly skewed, the telecom regulatory body has asked the stakeholders to suggest changes in the sampling methodology to make it more representative of both the segments or different types of tariff plans.

The audit will look into the incidences of wrong charging specially in case of data packs, STVs, multiple tariff packs at a time; and how IT tools and new technologies can be used to prevent errors in charging or wrong configurations of tariffs, and ensure consistency in disseminating tariff information across different mediums and channels.

“Any correction of wrong charging due to inconsistency of information by the TSP across multiple channels is required to be done, keeping the customer in the advantageous position always," Trai said in the paper.

One can access the TRAI consultation paper here. Stakeholders can submit their comments by 29 September. The window for counter comments will be opened till 13 October.