BSNL partners with promotion platform to reward users for watching ads

15-20% of revenues earned from the ads will go to customers as reward points, remaining 80% will go be shared between BSNL and Infomo

State-run BSNL has partnered with a mobile advertising platform Infomo wherein customers will get reward points for allowing advertisements while making or receiving calls or sending SMSes. The reward points can be redeemed at various partner outlets.

The service, which will commence in July, is targeted at the around 25 million BSNL customers who use smartphones. About 15-20 per cent of the revenues earned from the advertisements will be shared with customers as reward points whereas the remaining 80 per cent will be shared by BSNL and Infomo. Call2Action Communications, which owns Infomo is in talks with various companies to join the platform.

As the platform requires consumer data, BSNL will be responsible to safeguard it. An official of BSNL said the data will not be shared with any third party and consent from consumers will be taken for delivery of advertisements. It must be mentioned that Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recently tightened the norms relating to telemarketing and made it mandatory to take consent of consumers for any promotional calls or SMSes.

Ananda Rao, Founder and Director of Call2Action Communication said the platform was designed specifically for mobile operators wherein the services deliver interactive advertising and promotion content to mobile phones during routine everyday interactions such as calls, SMSes, alerts, notifications, beacons, and other location-based interactions.

The service can be availed through MyBSNL app and after signing up; users can select the kind of content they want to receive. Based on preferences, appropriate content will be automatically delivered to the mobile and customers will be eligible for multiple rewards. For example, based on the accumulated points, users could pay the monthly bill. Customers can also put a daily limit to the number of ads they want to see. The ads will also be interactive like if a customer is watching a promo of a film, he can book the tickets through the advertisement.

Since the MyBSNL app is operator agnostic, users of other mobile operators can also download it and use the service.

R K Mittal, Director (Consumer Mobility), BSNL said the Indian telecom sector is experiencing turbulent times and telecom operators are always looking to increase the average revenue per user (ARPU). "This partnership can help us achieve and improve our ARPU by providing our 110 million customers in India with a range of innovative new services from which they can earn significant rewards," Mittal added.

There are already over 5 million MyBSNL app downloads for Android and Apple devices.