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TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA
irr«f tHCf>i~ I Government of India
Dated: 24.03.2026
DIRECTION
Subject: Direction under section 13, read with sub-clauses (i) and (v) of clause
(b) of sub-section (1) of section 11, of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of
India, 1997 (24of1997) regarding publication of tariff offers etc.
F. No. RG-10/(1)/2025-ADV_FEA-1: Whereas the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
(hereinafter referred to as the "Authority"), established under sub-section (1) of section 3
of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997) (hereinafter referred
to as the "TRAI Act, 1997"), has been entrusted with discharge of certain functions, inter
alia, to regulate the telecommunication services; to ensure compliance of terms and
conditions of license; to protect interest of service providers and the consumers of
telecommunication service; to promote and ensure orderly growth of the telecom sector;
2. And whereas in exercise of the power conferred upon it under sub-section (2) of
section 11 of the TRAI Act, 1997, the Authority has notified the Telecom Tariff Order, 1999
and clause 9 of the said Tariff Order, inter-alia, provides that tariffs to be charged by
service providers from subscribers for telecommunication services along with the
conditions thereof shall be published in such manner as the Authority may from time to
time direct;
3. And whereas the Authority, in exercise of the powers conferred upon it under
section 13, read with sub-clauses (i) and (v) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11,
of the TRAI Act, 1997 and clause 9 of the Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999, issued
Direction No. 301-16/2019-F&EA dated 18.09.2020 (hereinafter referred to as the
"Direction") on tariff publications directing all telecom service providers , inter a/ia, to----
(a) publish each tariff offer in the nature of Special Tariff Vouchers/Combo
Vouchers/Add on Pack;
(b) make available such Tariff Offers to the subscribers at the Customer Care
Centres, the points of sale, retail outlets and on the website, App of the telecom
service provider; and
(c) ensure that the tariffs published by it update on the website, App and Customer
Care Centre of the service provider, points of sale and retail outlets every time
there is any change in any of the tariff offers or new tariff offer is launched;
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World Trade Center, Tower-F, {4th to 7th Floors), Nauroji Nagar, New Delhi-110029
Tel. : 011-20907752 / www.trai.gov.in4. And whereas the Authority noted from the media reports that M/s Reliance Jio
lnfocomm Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the "M/s. RJIL") had discontinued their entry
level prepaid recharge plans offering 1G B/day for a month and, accordingly, the Authority,
vide its email dated 22.08.2025, requested the service provider to-
"1. Confirm the authenticity of the said news reports.
2. Provide the reasons for discontinuation of such entry-level prepaid plans.
3. List of your currently available entry-level prepaid recharge plans with minimum
data available."
5. And whereas M/s RJIL, vide its letter dated 25.08.2025, submitted its response to
the Authority's letter dated 22.08.2025 and upon examination of the same, the Authority
noted that the Special Tariff Vouchers viz. STV 249 and STV 199 are available only
through Jio Stores and STV 209 is available only through MyJio mobile application;
6. And whereas the Authority, vide letter dated 04.11.2025, informed M/s RJIL that the
STVs, mentioned in the preceding para, are available only on Jio Stores or MyJio app and
not across all the platforms, as directed by the Authority, which amounts to violation of
regulatory principle of transparency in communication of tariff, and accordingly, the
Authority directed the service provider to provide reasons as to why -
(a) non-offering of STVs across all platforms should not be treated as violation of
regulatory principle of transparency in communication of tariff and non
compliance of Authority's Direction dated 18.09.2020; and
(b) offering of a device-specific tariff should not be treated as violation of regulatory
principle of non-discrimination;
7. And whereas M/s RJIL, vide its letter dated 11.11.2025, inter alia, informed the
Authority that the Direction dated 18.09.2020 was issued by the Authority strictly on tariff
publication and not on how and where the tariffs should be sold and further informed that
JioPhone device tariffs and JioBharat device tariffs are offered to well-defined and distinct
classes of subscribers i.e. the users that use these plans on JioPhone or JioBharat
devices, respectively, and are not available to any other class of Jio users using any other
device and thus, this distinction is not arbitrary as it is based on the intelligible criteria of
an exclusive device type being used and, therefore, cannot be treated as discriminatory;
8. And whereas the Authority is of the view that the statement of M/s RJIL on the
issue of tariff publication is misplaced and deviates from the intent and spirit of the
Direction dated 18.09.2020 as para 11 of aforesaid Direction called for essential
disclosure for tariff plans and for STV/CV/Add on Packs and the said para, inter a/ia, reads
as under:-
"Essential Disclosure for Tariff Plans
(A) publish, service area wise, within fifteen days of the date of issue of the
said Direction, each Tariff Plan for post-paid subscribers, pre-paid subscribers,
as applicable and shall make available such Tariff Plan to the subscribers at
Page 2 of4the Customer Care Centres, the points of sale, retail outlets and on the
website, App of the telecom service provider. ...
Essential Disclosure for STVICV/Add on Packs
(BJ publish, service area wise, within fifteen days of the date of issue of the
said Direction, each tariff offer in the nature of Special Tariff Voucher/ Combo
Vouchers/ Add on Pack and shall make available such Tariff Offers to the
subscribers at the Customer Care Centres, the points of sale, retail outlets and
on the website, App of the telecom service provider. ... ':·
9. And whereas the Authority's Direction dated 18.09.2020 directs telecom service
providers to publish each tariff offer in the nature of Special Tariff Voucher/ Combo
Vouchers/ Add on Pack and make available such tariff offers to the subscribers at the
customer care centres, the points of sale, retail outlets and on the website, App of the
telecom service provider. The Authority is of the view that -
(a) availability of tariffs to customers and the publication of tariffs are inherently
interconnected and cannot be considered in isolation as each aspect of one
influences and complements the other; and
(b) availability of tariff offers and STV/CV/Add on Packs on all the platforms is
imperative as such non-availability compels the customer to visit a specific outlet
for availing one service plan and another outlet for another offer, which is not in the
spirit of Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999 and the Direction dated 18.09.2020;
10. And whereas Mis RJ IL vi de letter dated 11.11.2025 has stated that there are many
tariff offers that cannot be sold on website or online and are available only at designated
Point of Sale, for instance postpaid plans, SUK Tariffs, First recharge STVs etc. In this
regard, the Authority is of the opinion that this submission is only valid for the initial on
boarding of the customers where the customer is willing to collect the SIM from the retail
outlet. Also, the SUK tariffs for the first time users are available through App/ website with
online purchase and home delivery option. And whereas the Authority's letter dated
04.11.2025 raised the issue regarding availability of certain STVs exclusively on Jio
Stores while not on the service provider's website/ app;
11. And whereas the Authority, vide clarification dated 22.10.2020 to the Direction
dated 18.09.2020, considered the request for exempting the mandatory provision of
updated information of the tariff offers in print/ paper form on the Point of Sale (PoS)/ retail
outlets and publication of tariff plans in prescribed format. The move away from prescribed
format to only prescribing essential disclosure was a step forward wherein the flexibility
of form and manner of presentation has been given to the TSPs. The emphasis in the
Direction is on making requisite tariff details available to subscribers by mandating only
essential disclosure without specifying any particular format for such disclosure,
and hence, the submission made by Mis RJIL is not valid;
12. And whereas the Authority examined the submissions made by M/s RJIL on the
issue of tariff offers on Jio Bharat and Jio Phone devices. The Authority found the
Page 3 of 4submissions made by Mis RJIL not satisfactory. Although, M/s RJIL has submitted Jio
Bharat and Jio Phone as a segment, these tariffs are not being reported to Authority under
Monthly Segment Report being submitted by M/s RJIL. Instead, the Jio Bharat and Jio
Phone Tariff Offers are available only to customers on specific device. Such tariff offers
are not uniformly available to all customers using common technology devices. The
device-specific tariffs are treated as discriminatory and disadvantageous to the
consumers as the offered tariff plans can be accessed only upon purchase of particular
make/technology device. Thus, binding the consumer with a particular TSP till the lifetime
of the device, effectively removing the mobile number portability option from the
consumers;
13. Thus, it is evident that the device-specific tariff offers are discriminatory as all other
tariff offers are device neutral and uniformly available across other devices.
14. Now, therefore, the Authority, in exercise of the powers conferred upon it under
section 13, read with sub-clauses (i) and (v) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 11,
of the TRAI Act, 1997 hereby directs M/s Reliance Jio lnfocomm Limited to -
(i) comply with the Direction No. 301-16/2019-F&EA dated 18.09.2020 and
publish and make available all tariff offerings including STV 249, STV 199 and
STV 209 across all platforms i.e., at the Customer Care Centres, the points of
sale, retail outlets and on the website, App of Mis RJIL; and
(ii) to make available the Jio Bharat and Jio Phone tariff offers in a device neutral
manner across all devices at par with its other tariff offers.
(iii) to report compliance of the above within three weeks (21 days) from the date
of issue of this direction.
To,
Shri Pankaj Mohan Pawar
Managing Director
M/s Reliance Jio lnfocomm Ltd.
Building TC-23, 7-D, Reliance Corporate IT Park,
Thane Belapur Road, Navi Mumbai - 400701
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