Vodafone, the country's second largest telecom operator by users, has bagged a contract from the Goa government for providing SIM connections with free calling and free data services with a usage limit, beating the 4G entrant Reliance Jio and Idea Cellular, which is India’s third largest telco by users.
Vodafone India won the bid with a quoted price of Rs 124.90 per individual beneficiary, the Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar revealed.
Parsekar, earlier this week, launched the Goa Yuva Sanchar Yojana which will enable the state's youth between 16-30 years of age to avail of a free SIM card, free calling and free data services with a usage limit. He also distributed the first batch of SIM cards to youngsters from the state.
The scheme, which has been launched with the state assembly elections just a few months away, allows youths from Goa 100 minutes of talk time and 1 GB of data at 2 MBPS speed free of cost provided they register with Vodafone to avail the benefits, according to reports. Over 1.25 lakh of the state's 1.5 million population are eligible to be covered under the scheme, Parsekar added.
"Goa is taking the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji's digital India forward with this scheme which will digitally empower our youth," Parsekar was quoted as saying.
Political parties are coming up such offers to lure voters ahead of elections. Uttar Pradesh's Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav also lauched Samajwadi smartphone scheme, which already touched a new milestone with registration crossing the 1-crore mark.
Yadav had reportedly extended registration date of the Samajwadi Party Smartphone scheme to December 31, 2016, on account of the slowdown in registrations following the demonetistion order.
