Government-owned telco Bhartiya Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced two major offers for its prepaid users. The telco has decided to increase account validity till April 20, 2020.

It has also credited its users’ Talktime balance by Rs 10 at no additional cost. The move by the telco comes just a day after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked all telcos to increase validity in prepaid numbers.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The government-owned telco, BSNL, announced a free talktime offer of Rs 10 for its users who may run out of phone currency during the lockdown period.
  • The move mainly comes in the backdrop of the 21-day lockdown period imposed throughout the country.
  • The move also comes after TRAI urged telcos to increase validity on prepaid accounts.

“You are required to take necessary steps as deemed fit including extending the validity period to ensure that all prepaid subscribers can enjoy uninterrupted services during the period of lockdown,” TRAI said in a communication to all operators on Sunday.

BSNL urged its users to ‘Go digital’ using the ‘MyBSNL’ app, so that they can get through the lockdown phase without any hassles.

BSNL has now removed the need for mandatory recharge from its prepaid users until at least April 20. It has taken this step in order for the Central government to help out millions of individuals, particularly those belonging to afinancially lower stratum of the society. 
The move aims to particularly help out members of the working class community of India who primarily earn on a daily wage basis. Due to this pandemic the economy has crumbled, leading these daily-wage earners without income avenues for the foreseeable future.

Users must note that the free talktime can only be availed by those subscribers whose balance has hit zero. If such is the case, only then the telco will grant its user a free talktime of Rs 10 with a validity that will go upto April 20, 2020.

This means, despite running out of currency, the user can benefit free talktime. Through this, the users can benefit incoming calls, which otherwise don’t work if a BSNL user runs out of balance.

Incentive of Rs 10 to be rolled out by BSNL
 
Not just did BSNL waiver off the mandatory recharges until at least April 20, as per Prasad, an incentive of Rs 10 will also be rolled out automatically to users of BSNL prepaid connections, so as to aid them in making outgoing calls.
The state-run BSNL’s prepaid connection is actively used by millions of users across India, especially among the low data usage segment of Indian consumers.

While these developments were brought in by BSNL, Airtel, too came up with a complementary talktime of Rs 10 for 80 million of its subscribers with low income. Moreover, it extended its validity till April 17. This means there will be no interrupted incoming calls in this period of time.

Reliance Jio, came up with a free Jio Data Pack’ which is valid till April 1. Under the data pack, users can benefit upto 2GB of high-speed internet for free. However, when they run out of this limit, their speed will be reduced to 64Kpbs. However, users must note that no calling or SMSes fall under this pack.