The second wave of the coronavirus pandemic has hit the country hard and has impacted people from different walks of life in ways that cannot be summed up in an article. However, users in the less-privileged section of society have been impacted the most during the second wave of lockdowns.
Fittingly, the Indian telecom companies are offering them some relief in the form of free recharges, extra talk time and data enabling them to stay connected with their loved ones during these testing times.
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Jio Covid-19 offer
Looking at the pandemic, Jio has announced a couple of offers for its JioPhone users. Thanks to these offers, these JioPhones will remain working keeping people connected during this COVID-19 pandemic even if they don’t recharge their phone. Both the benefits are not applicable for users with annual or JioPhone device bundled plans.
Free 300 minutes of outgoing calls: Reliance Jio is offering 300 minutes of free outgoing calls for the entire period of the pandemic. JioPhone users will get 10 minutes of free outgoing calls every day, which means that even if the users are not able to recharge their phones, they’ll still be able to make outgoing calls. While Jio says that the offer will be valid “for the entire period of the pandemic” without offering precise information about the expiration date of this offer.
Double recharge benefit: Under this offer, Jio will top-up the account with an additional recharge plan of the same amount as the plan recharged by the customer. Jio states that if a customer, for example, recharges their connection with a Rs 75 plan, Reliance Jio will offer an additional Rs 75 plan to the user without any extra steps.
Airtel Covid-19 offer
Following Jio, Airtel – one of India’s largest telecom companies, announced a couple of benefits for its users as well. The company feels that these plans, amounting to a total of Rs. 270 crores, will benefit over 55 million less-privileged users.
Complimentary Rs. 49 plan: The company has announced a few smart recharge plans Rs. 45, Rs. 49, and Rs. 79 offering basic connectivity options. Also, Airtel has announced that Airtel prepaid customers will get Rs. 49 for free as a one time offer. Benefits of this plan include - talk time of Rs. 38.52, 100MB data, and 28 days of validity.
Double benefits: Airtel is also offering double benefits of the smart recharge of Rs. 79 denomination to the users who recharge their numbers this week. The plan includes a talk time of Rs. 128, 200MB data, Rs. 0.60 per minute tariff for local, STD, and landline calls, along with a validity of 28 days.
Vi Covid-19 offer
Like Airtel, Vi has also announced a new plan apart from offering a free recharge of Rs. 49, that the company claims will help 60 million users extending a benefit of Rs. 294 crores.
Complimentary Rs. 49 plan: Vi is offering the Rs. 49 Rs recharge one time free to its users. The plan comes with a talk time of Rs. 38, 300MB data, and a validity of 28 days. Additionally, Vi also has an app/ web recharge exclusive offer that adds an extra 200MB to this plan.
Extra benefits on RC79 recharge voucher: The new RC79 plan from Vi, that would typically offer Rs. 64 talk time, 200MB data, and 28-day validity, instead it now offers double the talk time and the company offers a talk time of Rs. 128 while other benefits remain the same. Vi is also offering 200MB of extra data with app and website recharges.
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