Airtel & Vodafone Will Block Calls After 30 Days If You Don’t Recharge

[LTE4G 195]

Yes it is so.

Airtel & Vodafone will block OUTGOING calls after 30 Days If You Don’t Recharge.

Further they will also block INCOMING calls after 45 days.

The minimum recharge for validity extension is ₹35 ( Rs26.66 talk time along with 100MB 3G/4G data, for 28 days).

So they have planned to dump all customers of lifetime validity who do not recharge frequently. Though this move will help them shed low ARPU customers and improve their ARPU figures but may also help Jio to induct all Airtel & Vodafone dropouts with ₹49 unlimited calling plan.

We can just wait and watch for the outcome of this new development.

Edited November 23, 2018 by LTE4G

[csmart 472]

This was bound to happen. There are millions of customers who do not recharge for months but enjoy incoming facility and telcos are burden with maintaining service to them without single paisa coming in. Due to extremely low plans, nad eroded margins, they can't afford such connections.

The problem will be for those in lower income groups as only one connection is generaly used for outgoing and rest for incoming. It will be hard for them to maintain all connections.

[LTE4G 195]

7 hours ago, csmart said:

This was bound to happen. There are millions of customers who do not recharge for months but enjoy incoming facility and telcos are burden with maintaining service to them without single paisa coming in. Due to extremely low plans, nad eroded margins, they can't afford such connections.

The problem will be for those in lower income groups as only one connection is generaly used for outgoing and rest for incoming. It will be hard for them to maintain all connections.

I would say Airtel & Vodafone are "Fishing in troubled waters" since, now they are just trying to improve their ARPU figures by shredding low ARPU users or forcing recharge upon them. I totally agree with you regarding the burden of maintaining such huge network but it is not going to help them by taking this step as by the way of loosing customers they cannot reduce their maintenance expenses but instead more calls will terminate to other networks.

Though it is going to fetch them some quick revenue but is surely going to affect their future business, since many lifetime validity users were suppose to recharge a minimum of ₹200 every 6 months to continue their services and now forced recharging for them will only yield ₹55 extra ( since ₹35X13 = ₹455 i.e. ₹55 extra for 13X28 days= 364 days). No customer will ever want to live with the fear of losing outgoing after 28 days without any grace period if he forgets to recharge on the last day.

IMHO it is a short term revenue collection policy and TRAI is equally involved since this violates the TRAI's 90 days disconnection policy.

I am just concerned about the majority of lower income people using mobile - as they are going to be affected badly by this move.

Edited November 27, 2018 by LTE4G

[Hejmady 37]

BSNL Prepaid 
Karnataka Circle

Plan voucher: Rs.36/-
Tariff: Local - Rs.0.02/- Per sec; STD - Rs.0.024/- Per sec
Plan Validity: 180 days [6 months]

After Plan validity Expiry
Grace Period GP1: 15 days [Outgoing Calls & SMS barred except Toll Free & Emergency Nos. - if recharged, Talktime balance carry forward]
Grace period GP2: 165 days [Outgoing Calls & SMS barred except Toll Free & Emergency Nos. - if Recharged, Number is retained]

Note: Once recharged with Rs.36/-, BSNL customer gets Incoming calls & SMS free for 180+15+165=360 days

[commonman 228]

On 11/27/2018 at 5:05 PM, LTE4G said:

Though it is going to fetch them some quick revenue but is surely going to affect their future business, since many lifetime validity users were suppose to recharge a minimum of ₹200 every 6 months to continue their services and now forced recharging for them will only yield ₹55 extra ( since ₹35X13 = ₹455 i.e. ₹55 extra for 13X28 days= 364 days). No customer will ever want to live with the fear of losing outgoing after 28 days without any grace period if he forgets to recharge on the last day.

IMHO it is a short term revenue collection policy and TRAI is equally involved since this violates the TRAI's 90 days disconnection policy.

those who use only for incoming would wait till 28+15 (43) days to do validity recharge. so they would be paying about 300 now instead of the earlier 400.

And yes TRAI regulations are violated as the to the Telecom Consumer Protection Regulation (Sixth Amendment) Rules specify that connection can not be discontinued as long as the main balance is more than Rs.20, but Rs20/30 days can be deducted for inactive numbers.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

For customers using mobile number for incoming only, BSNL is the only better option. In TN, there is a Recharge called "New Vasantham" lifetime validity plan, for just Rs5 and currently its valid till 29-Feb-2020 (as its license expiry date of BSNL here).

[commonman 228]

After public outcry, TRAI has intervened.

Now, the minimum validity recharge has been reduced to 23 by Airtel and 24 by Voda.

To recharge from main balance,

for airtel dial *121*51# and choose 23. it can also be put on auto renew mode.

for voda dial *444*24#. no auto renew option.

for idea dial *369*24#. no auto renew option.

[LTE4G 195]

2 hours ago, commonman said:

After public outcry, TRAI has intervened.

Now, the minimum validity recharge has been reduced to 23 by Airtel and 24 by Voda.

To recharge from main balance,

for airtel dial *121*51# and choose 23. it can also be put on auto renew mode.

for voda dial *444*24#. no auto renew option.

for idea dial *369*24#. no auto renew option.

After massive porting out request it was bound to happen.