When will the Government stop Coronavirus caller tune? There is now enough awareness!

End March, as soon as the first few cases of COVID-19 positive emerged in India, the government ordered the country’s telecoms operators to play a 30-second audio clip about coronavirus in place of a ringing tone in order to raise awareness of the pandemic.

India’s Department of Telecom implemented the order following a request from the country’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

It has been five months now since the launch of this awareness tune that plays when one dials out a number from the cell phone. Played in regional and English languages, the caller tune has certainly tested every citizen’s patience beyond the normal tolerance.

Even though there is a trick to skip the coronavirus message on Airtel, Vodafone-Idea, and Jio, it is not always that it works for every subscriber of any operator. No hack seems to work to stop the tune in desperate situations.

For many, just after the outgoing number is dialled, opening the key pad and pressing digit 1 or *646*224# soon after the caller tune begins helps stop the tune, but for many subscribers this trick just does not work.

Majority of the subscribers are left irritated with this message and many believe that there is enough awareness already created. In fact, many subscribers are in the opinion that the 30 second time is so vital in emergency situations, especially while connecting to doctors or pharmacies. Some say that even when calling for ambulance services the caller tune is played.

Last week, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) demanded that caller tunes about coronavirus awareness should be stopped immediately. MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar in his tweet said that for the past few months DoT has been providing information about coronavirus through caller tunes, but today, there is already a lot of public awareness, and the caller tunes often delay important phone calls.

BSNL, on being insisted by its subscribers, has apparently stopped the awareness caller tune in many regions. However, other operators have not yet finalized on when the tune would be stopped.