Kerala floods: Telecom operators offer free services for 7 days in state

Telecom operators have announced free call and data services, extension in bill payment dates and other relief measures for seven days for customers in flood-hit state of Kerala.

While Reliance Jio and state-run BSNL have offered free calls to all customers, established operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are offering calling against limited credit for prepaid customers for seven days and extended bill payment dates for postpaid customers.

All the five telecom operators are offering free data service to customers. However, private established operators have capped free data to 1 gigabyte for seven days. "We stand firmly with you in these unfortunate times. To help you stay in touch with your loved ones and remain connected, we are extending a complimentary seven days unlimited voice & data pack to you," Jio said in a message sent to customers.

Catch the LIVE updates on the flood situation in Kerala here. 

BSNL is offering unlimited calls within its own network and 20 minutes free call every day on other networks for seven days in the areas that are affected by flood, company's Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said. "BSNL stands with its customers in Kerala. For next seven days BSNL will offer unlimited on-net calls and data to customers in flood-hit area of Kerala. They can also make 20 minutes of calls on any network everyday in next seven days," Shrivastava said.

Airtel and Vodafone are offering calling against credit of Rs 30 per day to prepaid customers and Idea customers in Kerala will have option to avail calling worth Rs 10. While talk time worth Rs 30 will auto-credited in prepaid customers account of Airtel, subscribers of Vodafone and Idea will need to dial certain code from their mobile phone to avail it.

Airtel is offering mobile battery charge facility at select flagship stores located in Thrissur, Calicut, Malappuram, Kannur, Kottayam from where customers can also make free calls. Airtel said that it is deploying VSAT at five major relief centres in Kerala to provide free wi-fi and calling facility to people.

The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led firm said that its network is up and running despite the challenge of lack of power supply and disruption in movement of fuel supplies.

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