Lifetime validity on prepaid mobile plans and deactivation

[vivek.krishnan]

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

They want to do a Jio - make people recharge with 150/month. People are using Airtel-Vodafone-Idea (AVOID) as secondary SIMs (for incoming mainly) while recharging Jio SIMs with 399. Most people do not want to port their primary number to Jio, and are not ready to pay 458 or so to AVOID.

As for prepaid vs postpaid - you are forgetting the actual meaning - it just means pre-payment and post-payment ie pay before and pay after use. Plus, for the purposes of tax, with prepaid it was an inclusive plan (cannot claim ITC except for Jio) while with postpaid they kept it as a plus (ITC claimable)

 

[NotMyRealName]

My vodafone (prepaid primary) is showing validity dec 31 2037. But given that the previous LTV rules also had a requirement of a certain minimum recharge amount every 6 months, i think they might still keep the validity for lifetime with the same conditions. But that doesn't mean they also HAVE to provide free incoming during this period without any additional recharge.

What is going to happen with people like me, who have kept the primary number for incoming while recharging Jio, i'll just scrap my alternate jio number (losing 99 bucks prime) and port my vodafone to jio. Losing another 99 is better than having to recharge both the jio and vodafone.

Dumasses are just going to lose more customers instead of making more money...

 

[blr_p]

As for prepaid vs postpaid - you are forgetting the actual meaning - it just means pre-payment and post-payment ie pay before and pay after use.

Loosely speaking. I don't have a bill to pay each month with prepaid. It's there with postpaid.

I didn't use packages much because my use was mostly voice or sms and occassional data. I've only recently got on the 82 days plan because data is attractive these days. 2GB/day every day is unheard off before Jio entered the game.

As i said there needs to be clarity whether LTV exists anymore or not. I can't find anything that confirms directly either way

 

[blr_p]

My vodafone (prepaid primary) is showing validity dec 31 2037. But given that the previous LTV rules also had a requirement of a certain minimum recharge amount every 6 months, i think they might still keep the validity for lifetime with the same conditions. But that doesn't mean they also HAVE to provide free incoming during this period without any additional recharge.

When i started this discussion back in 2015, there was no requirement for any minimum recharge every six months going by their lawyers replies. TRAI have rearranged their site so all my links to the replies don't work any more. The idiots in the shop always mentioned it though.

The only rules were to keep it active and should it become inactive that the balance not be Rs.20 or below. Otherwise they'd deduct Rs.20 each month.

 

[vivek.krishnan]

Loosely speaking. I don't have a bill to pay each month with prepaid. It's there with postpaid.

I didn't use packages much because my use was mostly voice or sms and occassional data. I've only recently got on the 82 days plan because data is attractive these days. 2GB/day every day is unheard off before Jio entered the game.

As i said there needs to be clarity whether LTV exists anymore or not. I can't find anything that confirms directly either way

Yep.

As for LTV - I doubt they (AVOID) will change their stance. BSNL/MTNL might still be on the old path, but lets see...

 

[vivek.krishnan]

When i started this discussion back in 2015, there was no requirement for any minimum recharge every six months going by their lawyers replies. TRAI have rearranged their site so all my links to the replies don't work any more. The idiots in the shop always mentioned it though.

The only rules were to keep it active and should it become inactive that the balance not be Rs.20 or below. Otherwise they'd deduct Rs.20 each month.

The only rule was to ensure that you make any chargeable activity (outgoing call/sms) every 180 (or 30?) days or so... else the prepaid number would be deducted by 20 INR. And keep balance of 20 INR plus.

 

[vyral_143]

In somewhat relation to this, Vodafone have stopped activating packs from prepaid balance. E.g. say I have balance of 500 and there is this UL pack for 458, I can NOT activate that pack via balance deduction.

 

[blr_p]

In somewhat relation to this, Vodafone have stopped activating packs from prepaid balance. E.g. say I have balance of 500 and there is this UL pack for 458, I can NOT activate that pack via balance deduction.

Are you able to add any balance ?

 

[vyral_143]

Are you able to add any balance ?

Did not try that as all I wanted to do was to activate 84 days pack/recharge. However I recharged my Airtel number successfully with 100 via Amazon around 3 weeks back.

 

[ankushv]

As I've mentioned earlier , the only availabe talktime option to me is 10 and 1000 . Nothing in between .

I will switch to Mtnl as soon as my balance expires .
I don't wish to recharge by 1000 RS when I use the phone mainly for incoming and almost nil data ( I have an office number for data and outgoing ).

 

[RS4]

The Era of lifetime validity is over and we can use this thread to list the cheapest plans available for keeping SIM cards active. From my research the cheapest option is BSNL, we can opt for Plan 36 which costs 36 rupees and lasts 180 days.

The AVOID cartel are asking for 35 rupees every 28 days for validity, I plan to port my secondary SIM idea to BSNL soon, primary is Jio.

 

[swatkats]

I have 2 sims, which i Don't use! All i do is recharge with a 30 or 40 quaterly and call some one every 1 month. From past 2 years may be i recharged like maximum 200 for both numbers

 

[SunnyBoi]

the cheapest option is BSNL, we can opt for Plan 36 which costs 36 rupees and lasts 180 days.

Yup, load 300rs in the account and forget about it. BSNL will deduct 36rs from the main account every 6 months and keep the sim alive.

 

[nRiTeCh]

I have 2 sims, which i Don't use! All i do is recharge with a 30 or 40 quaterly and call some one every 1 month. From past 2 years may be i recharged like maximum 200 for both numbers

Lol. Same here. Just for the sake of keeping them alive. I spent max 60 bucks on my alternate no and randomly call my primary no and also send an sms.

 

[blr_p]

As I've mentioned earlier , the only availabe talktime option to me is 10 and 1000 . Nothing in between .

I will switch to Mtnl as soon as my balance expires .
I don't wish to recharge by 1000 RS when I use the phone mainly for incoming and almost nil data ( I have an office number for data and outgoing ).

Am seeing similar with airtel, what is confusing is these plans have lifetime validity but outgoing is only 28 days (!)

What does outgoing validity limited to just 28 days mean in the context of a lifetime validity plan ?[DOUBLEPOST=1541248410][/DOUBLEPOST]

Yep.

As for LTV - I doubt they (AVOID) will change their stance. BSNL/MTNL might still be on the old path, but lets see...

The acid test is whether LTV plans exist or not. If they don't then there is no more LTV.

But as you can see they still do. So .... ??

Only the choice of size of granular recharges has reduced

 

[blr_p]

The Era of lifetime validity is over

So long as plans with life time validty exist i'd argue the era of lifetime validity is NOT over

Hints and suggestions don't count.

First show me zero recharge options with lifetime validity.

Jio doesn't have any. There is no lifetime valdity with Jio.

but i did find ones from airtel and i presume others as well

 

[RS4]

Yup, load 300rs in the account and forget about it. BSNL will deduct 36rs from the main account every 6 months and keep the sim alive.

Another Plan which i can see on BSNL Website is Freedom Plan 136 which costs 136 and has validity of 730 days: http://www.bsnl.co.in/opencms/bsnl/BSNL/services/mobile/prepaid_plans_new23022018.html

So long as plans with life time validty exist i'd argue the era of lifetime validity is NOT over

Hints and suggestions don't count.

First show me zero recharge options with lifetime validity.

Jio doesn't have any. There is no lifetime valdity with Jio.

but i did find ones from airtel and i presume others as well

This thread is meant for listing the cheapest plans for keeping the sim card active, we can continue discussions and arguments on Lifetime validity in the following thread: https://www.techenclave.com/communi...d-mobile-plans-and-deactivation.172513/page-3

 

[RS4]

The AVOID cartel leader, Airtel CEO has made it official now:

In the post-earnings conference call with investors, Airtel CEO, Gopal Vittal said:

“We have about 330-odd million customers in wireless. But if you look at the pattern of consumption… about 100 million customers have very low levels of ARPU (average revenue per user).” He further added, “So these ARPUs are at sort of low double-digit…

In the last one and a half months in three circles in Tamil Nadu, UP West and Punjab, we’ve introduced minimum ARPU-led plans at the low end… We’ve seen some good results in and we’re now rolling it just now across the country—in fact, in the last seven days, we have already rolled out across the country.”

Airtel CEO, Vittal said, “… If you look forward a couple of years…we should see at the lower end, 100 million customers giving us low double-digit ARPUs compressed further by 30-40% and an ARPU upside there.”

A person aware of the matter also spoke: “Letting go of customers who recharge less than 35 a month, particularly those who mostly receive incoming calls or do very small recharges, would also free up Airtel’s network and ease congestion. This would, in turn, improve the quality of service for high-paying users.”

https://telecomtalk.info/airtel-focus-arpu/182940/

 

[rdst_1]

I had an Airtel no with some balance. Every week some service used to get activated and Rs. 35 were cut. I would stop the service, but once it happened a couple of times, I realized that they were not gonna let me stay as a non-paying customer. I couldn't just rely on Jio alone so I succumbed and now have 2 numbers paying 200 bucks for each. With discounts and cashbacks and long term packs it comes to around 150 each. I just make it a point to use the data as much as I can and stay on 4g even when at home.

 

[NotMyRealName]

I think in the cities etc. where jio has good network everyone should port to jio, and in rural etc. areas where jio is poor, and bsnl is usually decent, port to that.

no moar moneis to the cartel !