TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA
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;
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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;
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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;
- 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 1 GB/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."
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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;
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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;
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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;
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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 the 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 .... ':·
- 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;
- 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;
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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 submissions 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;
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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.
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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
