Vodafone said it will give ten minutes of talk-time free for customers who face call drops, but only once.
If anyone faces a situation in which their “conversation gets interrupted for any reason”, they can get free ten minutes of talk time if send an SMS to Vodafone.
The SMS that such users have to send is ‘BETTER’ to the number 199.
The talk time will be credited within 10 minutes.
For prepaid customers, the free minutes will be valid till next day midnight and for postpaid customers, till the end of the billing cycle. The free talk time credit can be availed once during the month long bonanza and is applicable only when calling from your Vodafone connection to another Vodafone number within the same circle.
Part of the reason for the offer may be to fix the issue of poor network coverage. Having customers text their complaint this way may help the company keep a track of which areas are seeing the highest call drops. (Of course, it is also possible to keep track of call drops through far easier ways.)
Indian operators had come under fire from the regulator recently for trying to ‘mask’ call drops by increasing time-out criteria and keeping calls alive longer than usual in case of poor connectivity.
The latest move has come in the initiative on voice follows close on the heels of a major reduction in data prices announced by Indian telecom companies last week.
It is expected that Reliance Jio, arguably the biggest threat to these companies, will announce a major offer on Aug 15.
“Each conversation on our network is important and must carry on uninterrupted. At times, however, conversations do get interrupted,” said Sandeep Kataria, Director – Consumer, Vodafone India.
“To continue such conversations, we are offering 10-minute talk time benefit, no questions asked.”