Aditya Birla-promoted Idea Cellular who became country's 3rd largest cellular operator overtaking state-owned BSNL and having a subscriber base of 56 million takes a step to deactivate unused numbers implementing new rule to its all prepaid customers who have taken Idea connection and left it unused. Idea Cellular is now present over 22 circles on India.
As new operators coming with cheaper tariffs and dual SIM handset prices are lowered down, people now have more than one connections with him/her. Older one is often left unused due to higher tariff rate of that, and cheap tariff from new players is enjoyed mostly. While most operators deactivates a lifetime connection which is inactive or not recharged with a minimum Rs 100- Rs 200 topup for a period of 180 days, Idea goes more strict. It says :
New Idea Prepaid Subscribers with Lifetime account validity or account will be deactivated if he/she is in ANY of the below mentioned categories:
1. If he/she fails to remain active on the network for 3 continuous month’s i.e. he/she should either receive or make a call (excluding the first call for SIM activation) once in 3 months.
2. If he/she does not recharge with a minimum value of Rs. 200/- once in every 6 months.
Basically this new 90 days or 3 months deadline makes Idea to get some revenue for its subscribers. But as MNP is coming soon, this strict regulation would not make any sense. Will Idea recycle these inactive numbers? Those people can not leave Idea Cellular due to their favorite number will move to the cheaper operator as soon as MNP kicks in.
