I remember getting unlimited night calls packs on my mobile when I first got a mobile over a decade ago (yes, I was young then and I’m even younger now). At that time, telcos offered not only unlimited night calls but also unlimited night SMSes for dirt cheap when SMSes were the big thing. After a while, private players like Reliance entered the landline market and then there were wireless landlines from Tata Telecom and others. Today, more than a decade later, BSNL has started offering free unlimited calling from landlines to anywhere in India (landlines and mobiles), which will come into effect from May 1. The unlimited calling scheme will work during 9pm and 7am. This service will be applicable for 6 months to check for response and will be reviewed post response. Anupam Shrivastava, CMD of BSNL told HT that despite the impact on revenues, the call rate (number of people making calls) may go up from 10% to 15% with this offer; if this added customers to BSNL’s service, it would be “worth the attempt”. Hidden features in your BSNL landlines Were you surprised by this move? (BSNL STILL OFFERS DIAL UP INTERNET!) Don’t be. Did you know that apparently, since 2003, BSNL has been offering services like call waiting, speed dialing, hot line feature, call forwarding, reminder calls at a fixed time, call hunting (users owning more than one telephone line can get incoming calls transferred to whichever line is free, in case one line is…
