Rs. 500, 1,000 Ban: Vodafone Offers Delhi, Mumbai Prepaid Customers Talktime, Data on Credit

To help prepaid consumers in Delhi and Mumbai circles who are short of balance post the demonetisation drive, telecom operator Vodafone on Friday said it is extending them a credit on talktime and data usage.

Prepaid users, who form a big chunk of the subscriber base for all operators, will be given a credit of Rs. 10 in talktime and data of 30MB across the network with a 24-hour validity, it said in a statement. Vodafone said the special services can be availed either by calling a toll-free number or dialling a Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) short code on phones (SMS CREDIT for talktime, and ICREDIT for data on 144).

For postpaid customers in the two cities, Vodafone has also extended the bill payment date by three days.

"To help our customers tide over the demonetisation period, Vodafone has extended postpaid bill payment deadline by 3 days in Mumbai. Additionally, prepaid Vodafone customers can opt for small credits on both talktime and data, allowing them to stay confidently connected," Pushpinder Singh Gujral, Business Head for Mumbai, said.

The government's surprise move to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has posed some temporary trouble for consumers in a cash-dominant economy like India.

For the second day, banks and ATMs witnessed longer queues of anxious customers waiting either to deposit the scrapped notes or exchange them to meet their expenses.