Trai mulls tighter norms, user refund for global SIM card cos

Telecom regulator Trai is likely to recommend tighter norms for international SIM card and global calling card companies, and favour refund to customers in case of service failure during an overseas travel.

If the recommendations being worked on by Trai are accepted by the Telecom Department, erring companies will have to cough-up refunds and compensation to customers in case their calling card does not work when they are abroad.

The move by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) follows detailed discussions with international SIM card and global calling card companies, earlier this year, reports PTI.

The discussion between regulator and players was held after an SMS-based survey initiated by the regulator revealed that nearly half the consumers who used such services claimed it worked partially or did not work at all.

"Trai will be recommending tighter checks on these companies, including a monitoring mechanism on how much business are they doing, how many cards are they selling...," a person familiar with the matter said.

The recommendations will also talk about refunds (for pre-paid) and compensation (for post-paid users) in case the card does not work, the source said but did not divulge the extent of compensation. Other measures being mulled by the regulator includes 24-hour call centre support. "Technically there are enough ways to establish the veracity of customer's claim that a particular card did not indeed work," the source added.