Airtel to stop incoming calls after seven days of validity expiry

Airtel has changed the minimum recharge plan in a way that a customer may no longer be satisfied with the operator. The change has been made to the grace period after the expiration date of validity. Until now, an Airtel customer could receive incoming calls for 15 days from the date of expiry of validity.

After the change, the grace period has now been reduced to seven days from the expiration date, which was earlier fifteen days. So once the plan expires, the Airtel subscriber can only receive calls for another week before that is no longer possible. For outgoing calls, subscribers will not be able to make voice calls if the validity expires, even if the account balance remains.

The move has been made to increase the average revenue per user (ARPU). Some subscribers shared on several blogs that Vodafone Idea is also implementing the same for its prepaid subscribers. However, there is no official confirmation of the same.

While the change in the minimum recharge plan can help Airtel increase its ARPU, it is no wonder that changes like these cause the operator to lose more subscribers. Unlike Airtel, Reliance Jio has no minimum recharge scheme for its prepaid subscribers. With Jio's prepaid plans, subscribers pay for the plan and get all the essential assembled into one: data, calls and validity.

For a customer, a profitable Jio plan is lighter on the pocket, since it offers more benefits at minimum prices. Airtel's minimum recharge plan will eliminate all inactive numbers and also push many more subscribers to Jio. Eventually, this will cause Airtel to continue losing more subscribers.