Airtel and Vodafone extend free incoming calls facility till 3 May.

Telecom operators Airtel and Vodafone have announced to extend the free incoming calls validity of prepaid accounts by 3 May. Remarkably, the Indian government has extended the lockdown in the country till 3 May as cases of coronavirus started picking up.

Earlier, both Airtel and Vodafone had offered one time of Rs 10 and an extended validity of their prepaid users till 17 April. But with the new lockdown period, both telecom operators are expanding the account validity of prepaid users at no additional cost.

While Vodafone says the move applies to its 90 million low income customers who use feature phones, Airtel just stated that the company will expand the account validity for low income customers.

Airtel provides free incoming calls facility to 30 million users:

As you may already know, private telecom operators have a minimum recharge policy, under which the user will stop receiving incoming calls free seven days after the expiry of the existing plan.

In a new press release, Airtel said that about 30 million prepaid users are unable to recharge their mobile numbers during this lockdown period. So to help such customers, the company is extending the account validity of the prepaid users till May 3, 2020.

This essentially means that customers will still be able to receive incoming calls free despite not having an active recharge plan.

"All users will get incoming calls free on their mobile numbers even after the end of the validity of their running plans," Airtel said this in a press release. By the way, the second phase of the lockdown will end on May 3, 2020.

Vodafone provides free incoming calls facility to 90 million users:

During the first phase of the lockdown, telecom operators provided 10 Talktime benefits to prepaid users at no additional cost as of April 17, 2020. Today, Vodafone Limited announced an expansion of its upcoming services at 90 million low income customers.

The company welcomed prepaid users using feature phones by 3 May 2020. The Company further stated that the incoming validity extension is being credited to the accounts of all eligible customers.

With this special proposal for low-income customers who use feature phones, Vodafone subscribers can now stay fully connected with their loved ones and receive relevant latest updates," Vodafone said in a press release.

Earlier, TRAI had asked all telecom operators including Airtel and Vodafone to extend the free incoming calls facility for phase two of the lockdown.