Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks

Last year in October, the telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea made a very bold move of removing the talk time recharge plans from their portfolio. However, what replaced the talk time recharge plans in the prepaid portfolio of these subscribers was even more shocking. The subscribers were now asked to recharge their numbers with minimum recharge plans priced at Rs 35 and above once a month to keep their services going. The subscribers were told that if they failed to do so, firstly their outgoing service would stop and then incoming too. While this move was made by the telcos to improve their financial parameter of ARPU, the subscribers were now in a dilemma whether or recharge their number or not or simply leave it as it is. We are here to help you with the decision to choose why you should recharge your primary number.

Option to Use SIM as Backup and Other Safety Purposes
One of the most important arguments in favour of the minimum recharge plans and why you should keep your first number updated with a little recharge is that it has become part of many other organisations as well. Over the years, the subscribers use this number to receive OTP, updates, SMS and more and spread it among more and more people. While Reliance Jio came into the picture, the subscribers spread this new number by calling through it multiple times, thus putting out two numbers out there.
Now if you are not recharging your primary number, then it means that you might be missing out on important calls at times. Also, in a worst-case scenario, you might get locked out of your accounts with the OTP going to a number which you no longer own. Such a situation might easily get turned into a one with financial loss, in case your number lands in the hands of a fraudster. Another simple reason why subscribers should recharge their first number is that they would have an alternative option to their second number or Jio number and usually this is the number which is more widely spread with the contacts of the SIM holder.