





Prepaid plans will no longer give you free incoming calls, thus forcing users to recharge every month to keep their connections active to receive incoming calls. Customers using a prepaid plan under Airtel, Vodafone or Idea will soon have to recharge a minimum amount to avoid deactivation of their SIM card.

There was a time in India when prepaid customers were lured in from all fronts with a scheme called “lifetime validity” and this was ten years ago, when mobile plans were a costly affair since there were only postpaid plans to make use of. A lifetime validity meant users with a prepaid plan would be able to enjoy a lifetime of free incoming calls, provided they made a recharge of a bare minimum of Rs 10 every six months. This led to an abrupt rise in the usage of prepaid subscribers and thus came the smartphone revolution.





In a shocking turn of events, it’s come to our attention that prepaid plans will no longer give you free incoming calls, thus forcing users to recharge every month to keep their connections active to receive incoming calls. Customers using a prepaid plan under Airtel, Vodafone or Idea will soon have to recharge a minimum amount to avoid deactivation of their SIM card for incoming as well as outgoing calls.

How it all started:

The news comes as a tip from an Airtel user from UP, Bhanuman Dwivedi, who claimed that outgoing call facilities were barred from his mobile number, despite having sufficient balance to do so. Even after making two different recharges, the user wasn’t able to connect to a number from his prepaid SIM card.





Upon registering a complaint through the Airtel customer care, Dwivedi was told that in order to get outgoing calls on his phone up and running again, he’ll need to recharge an additional amount of Rs 35. Dwivedi said he received no prior notice about the sudden change in his prepaid plan. It turns out that the new rule was implemented quietly by not just Airtel but also Idea and Vodafone, as reports started to surface elsewhere as well.





