In order to curb the spread of coronavirus in India, the government has imposed a lockdown. With people staying at home, telecom operators are introducing special measures as an attempt to help their users during this time.
Bharti Airtel announced that it is extending prepaid plan validity for 80 million users till 17th April 2020. The company has confirmed that even if the plan is exhausted, the users will continue to receive incoming calls without any interruption.
Further, the company adds that users will be receiving ₹10 talktime. Airtel says that these special measures will help migrant workers and daily wage earners who may have been impacted by the outbreak of coronavirus.
Reliance Jio has announced that JioPhone users’ validity has been extended and the users will now be able to receive incoming calls post validity expiration. Additionally, all the JioPhone users will get free 100 minutes of calls and 100 SMS till April 17th, 2020.
Joining Airtel and Jio is Vodafone Idea and state-owned BSNL. While Vodafone Idea is extending prepaid pack validity until 17th April 2020, BSNL has announced that it is extending validity till 20th April 2020 for its users who will continue receiving incoming calls.
This move comes after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) requested mobile operators to extend the prepaid pack validity for their users due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.