Lifetime validity on prepaid mobile plans and deactivation
- Thread starter blr_p
- Start date
I think they are doing it gradually and quietly to avoid mass complaints, give it a week or two, you should see incoming validity date on *123#
blr_p
Northstar
Which you would not need to do otherwise. Only Jio requires these regular recharges. A minimum spend of Rs.99 per month to keep the sim alive
The major advantage of every other network is recurring recharges aren't compulsory.
TRAI will have to take a call on this. Wait and watch.
it doesn't make sense to me, cost of voice now is down to zero. Are they saying you have to use data ? No there are still people with feature phones.
There is no question that all telcos are hurting as India has the least ARPU in the world. This is forcing consolidation which isn't necessarily bad.
Yes, I think this is unfair and unprofessional. Like I said, this is the second SIM on my dual SIM phone and I use another one also from Airtel as primary one. Why would you have to recharge a pack on a less used second SIM when there is a sizeable balance of Rs. 516/- alreadyto fall back on whenever there is an urgent requirement ?
I have been trying to talk to Customer Care for three days but after going through that entire IVR system, when you ultimately get to 9 for speaking to the Customer Executive, it repeatedly draws a blank !! It cannnot be that for three days one can't speak to the Customer care. I am sure Airtel is doing this deliberately and making sure that the customer pays up someway or other.
I wonder if TRAI will not just levy a hefty fine but ensure that Airtel loses its license fee and is drawn into litigation for such malpractice.
I have been trying to talk to Customer Care for three days but after going through that entire IVR system, when you ultimately get to 9 for speaking to the Customer Executive, it repeatedly draws a blank !! It cannnot be that for three days one can't speak to the Customer care. I am sure Airtel is doing this deliberately and making sure that the customer pays up someway or other.
I wonder if TRAI will not just levy a hefty fine but ensure that Airtel loses its license fee and is drawn into litigation for such malpractice.
This is one of the cons of Jio - minimum monthly recharges.
The problem is that if you consider ARPU as a benchmark, Jio is able to maintain a higher ARPU because of their minimum recharge plans which mandate a minimum of 49/98 per month for Jio phones/Others. And, most of us will happily do the 399 because it works very well. However, Airtel and the rest are not able to do this enforce this for prepaid, and so are starting the same.
I doubt TRAI can do anything about this, because this is a business practise. I think they will bring it upto 1 INR per day ie 28 INR monthly, then will start offering some free calls to appease the public.
Cost of voice is not zero. This is akin to zero rating, where the show calls as free, but not data.
Yes, hurting. But this was brought upon themselves with looking at the USA figures. Consolidation is always bad, leading to lesser competition, and higher costs. If not today, some day for sure.
ajackson
Contributor
I'm not a fan of Airtel and in fact use Jio, but in this case we should blame TRAI for letting Jio get away with it in the first place. Jio has put in place a system where nobody has a lifetime validity.
Why allow only one company to abuse the system? Others wouldn't even be allowed to roll out zero pay 6 month launches... Reliance only got away cos of friends in high places.
I find that logic hard to swallow. Would you rather instead pay 250/GB and have lifetime validity?
ajackson
Contributor
I don't mean lifetime validity for data.... I mean lifetime validity (or validity for the term of Jio's license) for INCOMING CALLS.
Folks don't recharge they don't get data, and they don't even get outgoing calls, that's how it should be... but incoming can remain.
Even BSNL makes you recharge for some value every 6 months or you lose your number... so why cry only at Airtel?
Ah, but that's exactly my point. Jio has sought to reduce the cost and maintain the ARPU by charging everyone - prepaid and postpaid. As a bait or bonus, whichever you prefer to call it, they made voice calls free. Scale of economies!
As for how it should be, that's something that the market is dictating. Look at it this way - apart from some very rare cases, even my maidservant has recharged with 458 Vodafone 84 days pack. She used to spend around 100 INR on calls and that too per minute and all. She has already made plans to get a (micro)loan for buying a Jio compatible smartphone.
ajackson
Contributor
And that brings me to my first point...
Why call them Chortel when they are (seemingly) the last ones to throw in the towel?
It's the Ambani Bros. Inc. that's robbing us blind with our own tax money.
Yeah but I have already recharged lumpsum on my Airtel prepaid balance. why force us to keep recharging again and again, despite large balance?
ajackson
Contributor
Because TRAI let Jio play the game of time based recharges. With Jio no matter how much the value of my recharge the validity period remains the same... 84 days or thereabouts.
If it's acceptable when Jio does it, it should also be acceptable when Airtel also does it.
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Before you start spewing BS like what you are doing above, just think, read and then comment.
Jio did not start the concept of these plans, these were there earlier as well in prepaid with Airtel and all. If you look back at prepaid in 2000's, Airtel needed a 199 RC per month - I know this because I used to pay at that time. Outgoing used to be 3-5 INR and incoming was 1-1.5 INR. Data was like 2G and super expensive. The 199/299 RC used to not be carried forward initially.
Then, Airtel brought a 999 RC for lifetime validity to stop these monthly recharges. Again, done this.
Jio has gone back to what was present earlier and has made it extremely value for money. Airtel has ****ed up by not adhering to what they promised.
^
Sure. When you keep repeating the same comment again and again, without understanding what was earlier, and keep bringing up TRAI, and then using Jio and still telling that why, I don't see it as anything but BS.
Sure. When you keep repeating the same comment again and again, without understanding what was earlier, and keep bringing up TRAI, and then using Jio and still telling that why, I don't see it as anything but BS.
The point is not what Jio did, What we want to know is what happened to Lifetime Validity which we paid for. If i remember correctly, 5-6 years ago when you buy any sim, you paid for sim+lifetime validity recharge+talk-time.
They advertise their 4g on front full page, but they do public notification on these changes with a 1cmx1cm notice, if people don't see that as shady business practice, then they are delusional. Also how many of us read newspapers regularly ?
They advertise their 4g on front full page, but they do public notification on these changes with a 1cmx1cm notice, if people don't see that as shady business practice, then they are delusional. Also how many of us read newspapers regularly ?
blr_p
Northstar
I don't think they can but what they may do is deduct monthly a certain amount. Thing is this applies only in the case of no activity. They keep deducting until Rs.20 is let and then the number is gone.
But if you're using the phone then you fulfill the conditions for activity.
Not really. They want prepaid ARPU to go up. So until it hits a magic figure of 150, I guess they will be pushing...
I'm not a heavy cell phone user and I'm always connected via WiFi. I used to put in talktime and use phone without any plans . Now I guess I have to Port out of Vodafone as they are showing me a top up of RS 10 and RS 1000 only . I used to top-up my phone once with say 500 RS talktime and then every month 29 RS data plan for 500 mb for 28 days and recharge talktime seperately whenever exhausted . Now the Vodafone plans don't seem viable for me . Jio is min 98 which is too much as I have a 25mbps WiFi and hardly make any outgoing calls on my personal mobile sim . I guess Mtnl Mumbai is the only option for me. . Jio is most expensive for my usage and Vodafone / Idea / Airtel have copied jios plans to increase arpu .
blr_p
Northstar
So what does this all mean then ?
There are no more LTV (lifetime validity) plans anymore. If LTV exists then why the compulsory recharge ?
No more prepaid, everybody now becomes postpaid as there is a compulsory payment each month
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