The Silicon Review ^Asia

Every industry is giving its best to fight the deadly virus and help people as much as possible. As a helping hand, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked all the leading telecom operators in India to extend the validity of prepaid users to ensure uninterrupted voice and data services amid national lockdown.

The sector asked to take necessary steps as deemed fit including extending the validity period to ensure that all prepaid subscribers can enjoy uninterrupted services during the period of lockdown. "Though the telecommunication services have been considered as essential services and thus granted an exception from closing down. However, lockdown may adversely affect the working of customer service centres/point of sale locations," Trai in a notification said.

Prepaid users make up over 90% of the telcos' over 800 million active customer base.

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, ordered a strict 21-day lockdown starting Tuesday to prevent further spread of corona virus that has infected nearly 1,000 people killing more than 20.

During the shutdown period, people are facing difficulties while thousands of daily-wage laborers with limited resources flocking to return to their hometowns.

Under such circumstances, the regulator said that it was quite possible that those subscribers who wish to top up their prepaid balances or wish to extend the subscription to a prepaid tariff using offline channels may face hardships and/or disruption of services.