Earlier today, we wrote about Airtel's decision to auto-renew data plans for its postpaid customers when they end up consuming their data plan, instead of falling back to pay-as-you-go as the default. While Airtel might be legally okay in auto-renewing data plans, it doesn't feel right for consumers (see 1, 2, 3). Airtel's justification: they want to avoid bill shock. Under the new plan, the company automatically charges customers Rs 250 for an additional 1 GB for the remainder of their billing period, instead of Rs 0.03 per 10 kB (for 3G), which amounts to Rs 3145.73 (0.03 * 1024 * 1024) per GB. At the same time, there are two key issues with what Airtel is doing: 1. They're not giving customers a choice: they're automatically shifting customers to the new billing plan, and it appears, without their consent. 2. They're charging customers an inordinately high price, keeping the validity the same: if you have only 2 days left in your billing cycle, you're still charged Rs 250 and given only 2 days to consume that 1GB. A fresh cycle begins after that. This is patently unfair to a customer. What Airtel Should Do Airtel should take explicit user consent. Customers have signed up for data plans with a pay as you go model, and not for a model which has Rs 250 as an additional charge. The data plan is activated after an SMS alert. Considering the number of spam SMSes one receives there is a high chance that people…
