TechnoHolics

I have already explained about the Airtel Blackout Days long back. Now it was time to explore about the blackout days in other Telecommunications Service Providers (TSPs). Before reading further, a word of caution, many TSPs have custom blackout days for each telecom circle and year. So the blackout days that I am going to list out is most accurate w.r.t Karnataka Telecom Circle and for the year 2009.

What are blackout days ?
These are selected special days (usually festivals) during which no free or discounted SMS will be available to customers who have subscribed to SMS packs/Bonus cards/free or promotional SMS etc. On these days, between 00:00 hours to 24:00 hours, customers will be charged at base price i.e at regular normal tariff.

Vodafone Blackout Days
Akshaya Trithiya, New Year, Republic Day, Valentine Day, Holi, Ugadi, Vishu, Friendship Day, Independence Day, Mahasaptami, Dassera, Naraka Chturdashi , Diwali, Christmas, New Year and New Year Eve.

BSNL Blackout Days
New Year Eve, New Year, Valentine day, Diwali and Christmas.

Aircel Blackout Days
New Year, Ugadi, Friendship Day, Diwali, New Year.

Idea Blackout Days
New Year, Friendship Day, Diwali (Eve), Diwali, New Years (Eve).

Reliance Blackout Days
National Holidays, New Year, Ugadi, Friendship Day, Naraka Chturdashi, Diwali and New Year Eve.

In TSPs like Reliance, all National Holidays are blackout days. For those who flunked in Social Studies, National Holidays comprises of

• Republic Day – January 26th
• Independence Day – August 15th
• Gandhi Jayanti – October 2nd

So be careful on these days. Don’t end up being cheated by your TSPs. They do not send any prior notification regarding these blackout days. It’s only after you are charged, you come to know about these. Why don’t they notify ? It’s because as of now, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has not made it mandatory to inform customers about the Blackout Days.