Airtel on Monday announced that it extended the prepaid pack validity for over 80 million customers till April 17, in order to assist customers from low income groups who are affected by the pandemic. The telco announced that all these customers will continue to get incoming calls on their phone even after the validity of their plan is exhausted.
This comes after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called upon telecom companies to make their services free for a month to enable the poor migrant labourers reach out to their near and dear ones. In separate letters to Airtel chief Sunil Bharti Mittal, Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani, and heads of BSNL and Vodafone, she highlighted the plight of lakhs of migrant labourers walking down to their native places, without food, medicines and shelter.
Airtel also announced that it would credit Rs 10 talktime to the prepaid accounts of these 80 million customers. Airtel has reached this number based on the Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPU) it earns from customers.
“The program has been kicked off, and these benefits will be available to users in the next 48 hours,” Airtel announced.
The telco said that this 80 million covers all underprivileged households on its network, and will benefit migrant workers affected by the lockdown.
Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer of Bharti Airtel said “In this difficult hour of fighting off the threat of Covid-19, Airtel is committed to ensuring that all people remain connected without any disruptions. And for this objective, it is critical to take care of the under-privileged daily wage earners of our country, whose lives have been disrupted due to the lock-down”