There's a funny feeling when a government body makes a bunch private companies do something for the better of the consumer. A moral victory of sorts. I've said this often, with pride, mobile telephony in India is way better than the US. It is cheaper and the bureaucrats ensure consumer benefits are put ahead of private interests. The telecomm authority (TRAI) has taken steps to curb SMS marketing spam and called out companies that made it difficult for users to avail number portability. Continuing with their let's tell the operators whose the boss attitude, TRAI is now making it mandatory for telcos to setup complaint portals, make these accessible by users to track the status and not only give the user a timeline as to when their grievance will be resolved but also make customer care calls free. (Yes, the telcos in India started charging for them lately.)
Going through the regulations proposed it almost reads as if Sheldon had kids and he was grounding them. According to TRAI, the telcos have to:
Hair loss reasons: Mobile phone after-sales support
TELECOM CONSUMERS COMPLAINT REDRESSAL REGULATIONS, 2012 (PDF)
In another document titled Telecom Consumers Protection Regulation, 2012, TRAI has listed several steps to be taken by the telcos to ensure a customer is not tricked by pricing strategies. The document asks telcos to provide customers accurate and timely information about their usage, cost incurred and the remaining balance. (Pre-paid customers are as of now updated at the end of each activity about the cost incurred and the remaining balance.) Further, according to the regulations telcos can have only 3 types of vouchers marketed to the end user: