New Delhi, Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) on Friday announced the extension of the validity for prepaid plans of their low-income subscribers till May 3.

The decision comes against the backdrop of extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3.

"Airtel is extending the validity of these accounts till May 3, 2020. All these customers will now be able to receive incoming calls on their Airtel mobile numbers even after the validity of their plan is exhausted," Airtel said in a statement.

Initially, to assist low income customers on its network during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, Bharti Airtel had announced special measures including the extension of validity of their mobile pre-paid packs till April 17.

Vodafone Idea said in a statement: "In an endeavour to ensure that low income, prepaid customers using feature phones remain connected amidst these troubled times, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), has announced the extension of incoming services for these users till 3rd May 2020."

It said that this free of cost extension of incoming service validity will enable millions of feature phone users of both Vodafone and Idea to continue to receive incoming calls, even if the validity of their plan expires earlier.