NE may bid adieu to pre-paid service

IMPHAL, Jan 15 : Come February and all pre-paid mobile customers may have to say good-bye to their service as the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has stopped giving new pre-paid connection and is in the process of turning the pre-paid service to post paid service.Speaking to The Sangai Express an official of the BSNL said that all mobile service providers have to get the pre-paid service extended each year from the Department of Telecommunication. However for this year, no extension has been given, said the official. The BSNL office at New Delhi has already intimated to all the Chief Managers of the company to stop issuing fresh pre-paid connection from next month in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East States, said the official. The primary reason for the decision to stop pre-paid service in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir could be the wrong usage of the service, said the official, who however hastened to add that Manipur takes a lot more care while issuing pre-paid service to any new customer. Since 2004, when mobile service arrived at Manipur, the pre-paid service has been extended for a year every February. The current validity of the pre-paid service expires on February 22 and it may not be renewed this time, said the official.The official further informed that as of now there are 1,20,000 pre-paid BSNL customers in the State. As per instructions from the head office of the BSNL, pre-paid SIM cards and recharge coupons with a validity period of over three months, which are ready to be handed to customers may be withdrawn from the market any time, informed the official further. The other instructions issued by the BSNL include possible activation of pre-paid general SIMs with validity of 90 days for upto November 21, 2008 and balance pre-paid SIMs be withdrawn from the market; revision of the minimum recharge conditions of 6 months and fixed as 90 days with recharge/top up coupons of Rs 100 under new amount and Rs 25 under old amount; in case any physical withdrawal of RCVs and SIMs is not possible, the same may be blocked in the IN system and customers may be suitably educated well in advance that pre-paid service may not be available with effect from February 22, 2009 and they can switch to any available post paid sche-mes. To a query, the official said that the pre-paid service of the BSNL may exist for some time but no such fresh connection will be given from February. Earlier, BSNL issued only a certain number of post paid connection, but once the new arrangement comes into force, there will be no such restriction, said the official.