The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Probe on into complaint against mobile operator

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Thursday, Apr 15, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Probe on into complaint against mobile operator

Special Correspondent

TAMBARAM: Following a court direction, the Chennai Suburban Police have registered a case and are investigating a complaint from an advocate relating to alleged cheating by a leading mobile phone operator.

Infant Dinesh (26), an advocate from Nerkundram, submitted a complaint before the Judicial Magistrate, Tambaram, that he was charged Rs.99 for a service he did not avail. On the Magistrate's direction, the police registered a case under Sections 120, 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code.

The advocate had secured a GPRS zero rental plan connection from the mobile phone operator, Airtel, in August last year. While browsing, he is reported to have clicked an advertisement and was immediately charged Rs.99 as charges for downloading a game.

The petitioner called up Airtel staff and said he had not downloaded it. As his connection was post-paid, he refused to pay the additional amount included in the bill for value added services, following which his connection was terminated.

According to him, the act of the company in charging Rs.99 was a violation of rules laid down by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. In an official statement,

Airtel said the customer was using a postpaid connection via which premium content was downloaded using Airtel Live WAP amounting to Rs 99. Airtel Live provides free usage on the Airtel live platform, and charges only for the content (themes, animations, games, wallpapers etc.) as per download. The download in this case was from a third party site, Airtel said.

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