There is still a way to promote 50% off phone cards

At noon on February 28, many people lined up in front of phone card dealers, trying to buy and top up cards before the time of "tightening" the promotional rate by the manager.

“Last chance to get a 50% discount on top-up card value on February 28 (from March 1, the next programs will only have a maximum discount of 20% according to the regulations of the Ministry of Information and Communications)”, a network operator continuously reminded users in the last few days of February.

As a result, with the “last time” mentality being pushed to a climax, the number of postpaid subscribers recharging cards of all network operators increased sharply yesterday. Sim card counters in Hanoi were crowded with people. Many subscribers complained that an e-wallet service had problems recharging due to overload.

The above developments stem from Circular No. 47/2017 issued by the Ministry of Information and Communications. The document stipulates that from March 1, network operators are only allowed to offer a maximum promotion of 20% for prepaid subscribers. For postpaid subscribers, the highest promotion is 50%.

The above limit includes the value of services, goods or material values ​​that network operators use for promotions. If telecommunications enterprises violate the regulations on promotion limits, they will be subject to administrative sanctions and tax collection for those promotion programs.

However, in reality, this regulation still has 4 exceptions.Among them, there are 2 exceptions that may be the "trick" that network operators will thoroughly apply in the coming time to take advantage of the 50% promotion for subscribers.

Firstly, the promotional programs are based on luck. This means that a certain number of subscribers can be randomly selected to receive a 50% promotion. The trick of "The program only applies to subscribers receiving the message" has actually been used by network operators for a long time. Most recently, on November 24, 2017, Mobifone launched a program to give up to 100% of the card value to a number of subscribers to whom this network operator sends messages.

The second is promotions for regular customers. Circular No. 47 stipulates that regular customers include postpaid mobile subscribers and prepaid mobile subscribers who have used the service continuously for at least one year and have paid a total fee to the mobile business since registering as a subscriber of at least one million VND.

In addition to these two cases, the 20% promotion ceiling also does not apply to the case of providing sample mobile information services for customers to try without paying and providing mobile information services with contest entry forms for customers to select prize winners according to the announced rules and prizes.

Previously, according to the explanation of the representative of the Ministry of Information and Communications, the contents of Circular 47 aim to ensure fair competition in the telecommunications market. Along with that is to ensure the rights and promote the development of postpaid subscribers, limit spam calls and spam messages.

Therefore, long-term prepaid subscribers from March 1 are likely to still enjoy the 50% promotion but not at the same time, if the network operator applies the circular's exceptions.