Indian state-owned telecommunications company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will soon drop the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) limit on unlimited prepaid and postpaid plans.
As of now, BSNL’s unlimited prepaid and postpaid plans come with a FUP limit of 250 minutes calls per day. However, recently the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has abolished the Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) for mobile charges.
No More Blackout Days & Base Tariff Post FUP Limit:-
Till now, once the FUP limit is reached, customers are charged at the base tariff plan. However from January 10, 2021(today) this will no longer apply to BSNL plan vouchers, STVs, and combo vouchers with unlimited voice calling benefits.
BSNL in a statement noted that “The competent authority has decided that the FUP limit of 250min/day for unlimited voice facility is to be removed latest by 10-01-2021 on all the prepaid vouchers with unlimited voice facility under GSM prepaid services and with unlimited voice facility under postpaid GSM services while keeping all other terms and condition same”.
Kerala Telecom first reported the development.
Across all telecom circles, the removal of the voice FUP limit will apply to both existing as well as new mobile customers of BSNL. Also there has been an announcement about the removal of blackout days.
Blackout Days are occasions like New Year or festivals, when users are likely to make more calls and SMSes. The telecom operator charge customers as per base tariff once the limit is reached. However, it has been decided to do away with Blackout Days.
Jio Follows Suit & The New Spectrum For BSNL:-
From 2021, following the TRAI move, Reliance Jio too has removed the FUP limit on all domestic calls and made them free.
However, Jio was was giving users complementary data in compensation to the tariff charged for post FUP calls. Jio had noted that for every Rs 10 spent on off-net mobile voice calls, an additional complimentary 1 GB data would be credited to the customer account.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ahead of the spectrum auction slated for March 2021, has allotted BSNL fresh pan India liberalized spectrum. The DoT released the notice inviting applications (NIA) for Spectrum Auction 2021 which will be held in March. BSNL has been allotted an additional block of 5 MHz in the 2100 MHz band in 20 telecom circles.