Airtel and Vodafone extended the validity of their prepaid packs for a section of their users after after TRAI requested telcos to do so. "Airtel has extended the prepaid pack validity for over 80 million customers till April 17th, 2020. All these customers will continue to get incoming calls on their Airtel mobile numbers even after the validity of their plan is exhausted," the company said in a release. Vodafone said in its release that it implemented a similar extension for 100 million customers on feature phones. The latter said it was also adding ten rupees in talktime to these customers' accounts. The extension comes as the COVID-19 pandemic has forced shops offering recharges to shut. "These 80 million customers effectively cover all under-privileged households on the Airtel Network. These special measures will particularly benefit migrant workers and daily wage earners who may have been impacted due to the nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19. All other customers on Airtel’s network are already recharging their accounts using online platforms," Airtel added, indicating that users buying more sizeable data plans will not be receiving an extension for the moment. Airtel has over 300 million customers in India, so this extension should affect around a fourth of them. It is unclear how Airtel determined which customers are in need of the extension, while Vodafone clearly said only feature phone users would receive an extension on their recharges. BSNL has extended users' SIM card validity, IT Minister Ravi Shankar prasad told ANI, along with a…
