Nepal Earthquake: Telcos offer free calls, calls at local rates to Nepal

NEW DELHI: After Airtel, Aircel is now offering free calls to Nepal for all its customers for the next two days (27th and 28th April).

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake last Saturday killed at least 2,200 people in Nepal. Following the natural calamity, telcos are offering free calls or calls at local rate to that country.

Earlier, Airtel annnounced its plans to offer free calls, while Idea and state-run BSNL and MTNL announced to offer calls at local rates.

"This facility has been extended to all Aircel customers across India for the next 48 hours, in light of the vulnerable situation prevailing in Nepal after the massive earthquake hit the country yesterday. The offer has been extended to all prepaid and postpaid customers of Aircel,” the company said.

Additionally, those customers travelling to Nepal will also get free incoming while roaming into Nepal for the next 48 hours. Aircel has also waived off International Roaming Rental Deduction for its prepaid customers.

“We are extremely distressed to see the mass devastation in Nepal caused by the earthquake and our hearts go out to all affected by this reflection of nature. We sincerely hope that our efforts in connecting the families and friends of the affected in this time of need helps and support them,” said Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer of Aircel.

Going ahead, instant messaging app Viber said that it has "switched off 'Viber Out' billing so users in Nepal can make free calls to mobile and land line numbers anywhere for the next 48 hours".

However, Vodafone India has announced that all calls made from its network from anywhere in India to Nepal will be charged as per local rate. This move will enable people to reach out to their friends and family members in the earthquake impacted areas in the country of Nepal.

“Vodafone is facilitating all calls made to Nepal at just Re.1/min against the regular call rate of Rs 12/min with immediate effect up to 10:00hrs on 28 of April 2015‎,” the company said in a statement.

Similar steps were taken by MTS India, and the company said that it is treating all calls made from its network to Nepal as local calls i.e Rs 1/minute.

“This is being done for the next 48 hours to support disaster relief efforts and to enable concerned callers to reach out to their friends and family in the earthquake affected areas in the neighbouring country,” the company said.

“The company has also sent out SMS to its entire base of prepaid and post paid customers informing them about the special call rates,” according to the MTS India.

Uninor has also said that the natural disaster at Nepal and surrounding areas has been deeply moving and distressing as it left many dead or stranded. With this, the company decided that all ISD calls to Nepal from Uninor network will be charged as local calls for the next three days ( Tuesday, 28th April, 2015).

“We extend our heartfelt condolences for those who have lost their loved ones and hope the situation normalizes at the earliest,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Tata Teleservices said that to support disaster relief measures, charges for all calls to Nepal on the Tata Docomo network are reduced to 1p/s between 26th to 28th April.

Reliance Communication (RCom) is also charging local calls rates to Nepal for all its customers for the next two days.

Prayers &strength to the families affected by #NepalEarthquake, Effective midnight all calls to Nepal @ local call rates till Tuesday 2400hrs,” Reliance Communication said in its official twitter account.