Kochi, August 17: Kerala continues to be on high alert after incessant rains triggered devastating floods that ravaged hundreds of homes, sending scores of people to nearby relief camps. Amid the grave flood situations across the southern state, telecom operators have announced free call and data services for seven days for their customers. Five major telecom operators- Reliance Jio, BSNL, Vodafone, Airtel and Idea are offering free calls and data service to their customers.

According to reports, Reliance Jio and state-run BSNL have offered free calls to all customers whereas established operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are offering to call against limited credit for pre-paid customers for seven days and extended bill payment dates for post-paid customers. However, private established operators have capped free data to 1 gigabyte for seven days.

Telecom operator Jio in its message to its customers said, "We stand firmly with you in these unfortunate times. To help you stay in touch with your loved ones and remain connected, we are extending a complimentary seven days unlimited voice & data pack to you".

BSNL Offer:

State-run BSNL is offering unlimited calls within its own network and 20 minutes free call every day on other networks for seven days in the areas that are affected by the flood.  "BSNL stands with its customers in Kerala. For next seven days, BSNL will offer unlimited on-net calls and data to customers in the flood-hit area of Kerala. They can also make 20 minutes of calls on any network every day in next seven days," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said.

Airtel Offer:

Airtel is offering calling against credit of Rs 30 per day to pre-paid customers.  The talktime worth Rs 30 will auto-credited in pre-paid customers account of the Airtel user. The telecom operator is offering mobile battery charge facility at select flagship stores located in Thrissur, Calicut, Malappuram, Kannur, Kottayam from where customers can also make free calls. Airtel said that it is deploying VSAT at five major relief centres in Kerala to provide free wi-fi and calling facility to people.

The Sunil Bharti Mittal led firm said that its network is up and running despite the challenge of lack of power supply and disruption in movement of fuel supplies.

Vodafone and Idea:

Vodafone is offering calling against credit of Rs 30 per day to pre-paid customers while Idea customers in Kerala will have an option to avail calling worth Rs 10. Subscribers of Vodafone and Idea will need to dial certain code from their mobile phone to avail it.

The death toll due to floods and incessant rains in Kerala has gone up to 167, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan informed on Friday. The state government has sounded a red alert in 14 districts. According to ANI,  over 1,65,538 people are living in the 1155 relief camps and nearly 2,857 houses have been damaged and 3393 hectares of crop loss reported from the state.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 17, 2018 01:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).