BSNL, Airtel, And Vodafone Idea Extend Validity For Users To May 5

Dhir Acharya


BSNL, Airtel, and Vodafone all have extended validity for its users now that India has prolonged the nationwide lockdown by another 2 weeks.

Vodafone Idea and Airtel have extended the validity for low-income users of prepaid plans to May 3. The telcos made the move because of the CO.VID-19 pandemic in the country that has forced the entire population to practice social distancing. Meanwhile, BSBL has already extended validity for its subscribers to May 5.

When PM Modi announced the first lockdown, the telcos extended validity for its users, and now they have done it again as the lockdown entered the second phase. Airtel and Vodafone users will continue to receive incoming calls after their validities end. Meanwhile, BSNL is extending the benefit for all subscribers with almost-zero balance.

Several users cannot recharge their plans during the lockdown

According to Airtel, more than 30 million of its subscribers with low incomes couldn’t recharge their plans due to the ongoing pandemic. It notes that all these users will continue to get incoming calls even after their packs expire. The same policy is applied to 90 low-income users of Vodafone Idea. The telco has announced this extension just for feature phone users, adding that the validity extension will be conducted as soon as possible.

After Vodafone and Airtel, BSNL has extended the validity for incoming calls for its subscribers with packs expiring amid the nationwide lockdown and almost-zero balance. The validity for BSNL users has been extended to May 5.

Millions of users will benefit from the extended validity

However, apart from incoming calls, telcos are not offering other benefits relating to talk time or data, which means users still have to recharge if they want to keep using the services. Due to the lockdown, many people are not able to recharge plans themselves, so telcos are letting users recharge plans for others.

As for BSNL, the telco has introduced a new number 5670099 (toll-free) for subscribers to provide facilities such as ‘Apno ki madad se recharge’ and ‘Ghar Baithe Recharge.’ For now, the number is functional in the West and North zones of the country and will be available in the East and South zones starting April 22. The latter feature will allow subscribers to request a recharge, then a BSNL executive will come to their home to have the recharge done manually. On the other hand, the ‘Apno ki madad se recharge’ feature lets users request for a recharge from a family member or friend.

Vodafone has launched a new program called #RechargeforGood

Vodafone has launched a new program called #RechargeforGood, in which subscribers can earn as high as 6% of cashback when they recharge plans for another user on the MyIdea app or MyVodafone app. Airtel has a similar program called ‘Earn From Home,’ in which users can register to become a Superhero and help other users recharge their plans and get cashback. This program offers a 4% cut from the recharge amount.

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