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Relief news has emerged for more than 100 crore prepaid mobile users across the country. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued ‘Telecom Consumer Protection (13th Amendment) Regulations, 2026’, making a historic amendment in the rules of prepaid recharge plans. Under this new rule, now telecom companies (Jio, Airtel, Vi, BSNL) will have to compulsorily provide recharge plans with full validity of 30 days instead of the so-called ‘monthly pack’ of 28 days and special tariff vouchers that are renewable on the same date of every month. Its direct effect will be that now consumers will have to recharge their mobile only 12 times in a year instead of 13 times. TRAI has taken this strict step after Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha raised his voice in Parliament against this game of 28 days validity.
For a long time, India’s leading private telecom companies were offering validity of only 28 days in their monthly prepaid plans instead of 30 or 31 days. The common consumer used to recharge it thinking it was a monthly plan, but there was a big financial mathematics of the companies hidden behind it.
There are 365 days in a year. If 365 days are divided by a cycle of 28 days, a total of 13 cycles are formed and 1 day is left (
$$28 \times 13 = 364$$
Day). That is, by deducting 2 to 3 days of every month, the companies used to unknowingly charge the consumer an extra month i.e. the 13th recharge till the end of the year. Raghav Chadha had raised this issue prominently in the Upper House of Parliament and said that this is a huge indirect financial burden placed on the pockets of 125 crore prepaid customers without their knowledge. TRAI’s new 30-day and monthly renewal rules will now save consumers exactly one month of recharge in a year.
Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha, who strongly raised this issue of the general public in Parliament, has welcomed this decision of TRAI and the Central Government and enumerated its major benefits through social media and video message:
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Only 12 recharges instead of 13: Now customers will be free from the 28 day cycle and will have to recharge only 12 times in a year as per the calendar year.
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Cheap voice and SMS-only plans: There are crores of people like senior citizens, students and low income group who keep mobile only for talking on phone or for OTP/SMS, they do not need internet data. The new rules will require companies to launch cheaper ‘voice + SMS’ special tariff vouchers (STV) with no bundled data.
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It will be easy to keep the secondary SIM active: Many people keep more than one SIM card active only as banking or personal number. They will not have to forcibly buy an expensive data pack of Rs 200-300, rather they will be able to keep the SIM active at a very low cost.
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Fixed Renewal Date: Customers will get the option of renewal on a fixed date every month (e.g. 1st of every month or billing date), eliminating the hassle of remembering recharge dates again and again.
The new framework notified by TRAI sets several stringent guidelines for telecom operators:
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30-Day Validity Mandatory: Telecom companies will have to include vouchers with a clear validity of 30 days in their tariff basket.
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Monthly Renewal Voucher: A plan will have to be provided whose renewal date every month will remain the same as the day the recharge was done for the first time. If that date is not in a month (e.g. 31st), it will renew on the last day of that month.
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Detail of Calendar Month Plans: Bundled data plans as well as long term calling-only plans (e.g. 84 days or 365 days) will also have to provide voice-only options at proportionately lower prices.
Currently, the average price of a typical 28-day prepaid plan (which offers 1.5GB data and calling daily) ranges between Rs 299 to Rs 349. On an average, a user had to spend around Rs 3,900 to 4,500 on recharging 13 times in a year. Now doing only 12 recharges in a year will directly result in annual savings of Rs 300 to 350. At the same time, with the introduction of voice-only plans for the elderly and general feature phone users in rural areas, their monthly telecom expenses will reduce by 50 to 60 percent.
This strict decision of TRAI will increase transparency in the Indian telecom market and customers will get complete freedom to pay as per their actual need.