In a bid to protect the interest of consumers, telecom regulator Trai on Monday issued directives to service providers on the procedure for providing Value-Added-Services (VAS) to users. "...the service provider shall obtain confirmation from the consumer through SMS or e-mail or Fax or in writing within twenty four hours of activation of the VAS.

"He should charge the consumer only if the confirmation is received from him for such value added service and shall discontinue if no confirmation is received," Trai said in a statement. Further, every service provider shall, at least three days before the due date of renewal of a subscribed value added service, inform the consumer through SMS.

If there is insufficient balance in the pre-paid account of a consumer at the time of renewal of subscription to a value added service, the service provider shall send a request, through SMS. Last year, Trai had floated a paper seeking comments from telecom operators on measures for protecting consumers' interest and redressal of customer grievances.

The consultation paper aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework and provide adequate protection to telecom consumers. Trai had convened a meeting of the chief executives of different telecom service providers and consumer advocacy groups relating to telecom consumer protection and redressal of consumer grievances.

Trai had said while the authority has brought out regulations on quality of service, grievances redressal and telecom consumer protection, it was a constant endeavour to revisit the redressal mechanism to further benefit the consumers.