Airtel moves all pre-paid customers to per-second payment

The latest plan will be available on all-India basis from today.

Analysts said most rivals were likely to follow in Airtel’s footsteps as the telecom business was highly oligopolistic, with each company watching the other’s moves and trying to match it.

The problem of call drops has become more acute in the last 3-4 months.

Data with Trai for the quarter ended March showed that 71 per cent of mobile consumers across the country were on per-second billing.

The authorities has made it clear to the telecom operators that it’ll not tolerate name drops and can provoke critical steps comparable to monetary penalties, in addition to different methods by which clients may be compensated -zero expenses for dropped calls or additional speak-time. This billing plan will enable its customers to pay only for the time they use the Airtel network. “While we continue to invest aggressively in our network quality and deploy new sites to further enhance our robust & wide network presence, as yet another token measure of our commitment we are today taking the lead to move our customers to the affordable per second plans ensuring that they pay only for what they use”. In an effort of boosting company’s “Customer First” commitment, Airtel customers will now pay only for the period they are connected to Airtel network. However, it said customers who would want to remain with the per minute pulse plans -where some benefits are offered in case of night calling rates, roaming and STD tariffs in certain circles -can opt to do so.

Bharti Airtel (India and South Asia) MD and CEO Gopal Vittal had recently said about 95 per cent plans are second-based, so they don’t earn anything if a call gets dropped. The transfer has been rolled out beneath the corporate’s new “pay for what you employ” initiative.