Recently, several reports circulated online that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) might impose penalty charges on mobile users who use dual SIM cards in the same phone.
News were claiming that TRAI’s new regulations could lead to charges for dual SIM users and this concerned the users. It is also suggested that the users would be fined either as a one-time payment or annually, with mobile operators potentially recovering these charges from customers.
Further confusion arose after reports also claimed potential penalties for operators holding on to an underutilized number of resources. This comes after the TRAI’s Consultation Paper on the Revision of the National Numbering Plan, released on June 7, 2024. The paper discusses the scarcity of these resources and proposes measures like one-time or annual charges for inactive numbers allocated to service providers, not end users.
However, TRAI debunked the news, saying that 'such claims are unfounded and serve only to mislead the public.'
The actual proposal focuses on addressing the issue of inactive SIM cards, which number over 219 million according to their data. TRAI suggested imposing fees for inactive SIMs to encourage operators to surrender unused numbers, not to penalize users directly.
The reports are based on a misinterpretation of TRAI’s proposals. TRAI’s document does not mention any plans to charge users for having dual SIMs. The focus is on improving the management of TI resources by imposing charges on inactive numbers allocated to service providers.
Conclusion: Hence, it is proved that claims about TRAI charging for dual SIM usage are misleading and based on hypothetical scenarios, not actual proposals in TRAI’s consultation paper.