TRAI prevents Airtel from cancelling your SIM number for 90 days of inactivity. But services stop when the plan expires. Here is what the rule protects and what it does not.
When an Airtel prepaid recharge plan expires and no top-up follows, services do not all stop at the same time. Outgoing calls, data, and SMS stop on the day the plan ends. Incoming calls continue for 7 more days, then stop as well.
After Day 7, all services are off. What stays is the number itself. TRAI’s Telecom Consumer Protection Regulations amendment prevents Airtel from cancelling a prepaid number for non-usage within 90 days. The number cannot be deactivated and reassigned during this window. After 90 days, a 15-day grace period applies before the number is permanently released.
For Airtel prepaid recharges, Bajaj Pay, the Bharat Connect payments platform on Bajaj Finance, shows the exact plan amount before you confirm, through UPI, cards, or net banking.
What Stops and When
The most common misreading of the 90-day rule is that services continue for the full 90 days. They do not. Only the number is protected for 90 days. Every service stops well before that.
When an Airtel prepaid recharge plan expires, this is the exact order in which things stop:
| Service | When It Stops After Plan Expiry |
| Outgoing calls | Immediately on plan expiry |
| Data | Immediately on plan expiry |
| Outgoing SMS | Immediately on plan expiry |
| Incoming calls | After 7 days |
| Incoming SMS | After 7 days |
| Number itself | Protected from cancellation for 90 days |
After Day 7, the SIM has no active services at all. The number exists but cannot be used to call, message, or connect to data in either direction. The only thing TRAI’s rule preserves at this point is the right to reclaim the number by recharging before Day 106.
The Full 90-Day Timeline
This is the complete sequence for an Airtel subscriber who lets a plan expire and does not recharge.
- Plan expiry day: Outgoing calls, data, and SMS stop
- Day 1 to 7: Incoming calls and SMS still work
- Day 8: Incoming calls and SMS stop, all services off
- Day 8 to 90: Number protected from cancellation; no services active
- Day 91 to 105: 15-day grace period, number recoverable by recharging
- Day 106 onwards: Number permanently deactivated and reassigned
The 90-day protection matters most for secondary SIM users who may not notice a plan has lapsed. The number will not disappear immediately. But every service will have stopped by Day 8.
The Rs. 20 Extension Mechanism
If a SIM has been inactive for 90 days but still holds a prepaid balance of at least Rs. 20, TRAI’s framework allows the operator to deduct Rs. 20 from that balance to extend the number’s protection by a further 30 days.
This pushes the total protection window to 120 days for subscribers who have maintained some balance. If the balance is below Rs. 20, the SIM moves directly to the 15-day grace period after Day 90.
The 15-Day Grace Period
After Day 90, Airtel provides 15 days before permanently releasing the number. Recharging during this window restores the number and starts services based on the new plan.
After Day 105, the number is permanently deactivated. It cannot be recovered. It is made available to new subscribers. No action after this point can restore the original number.
What Secondary SIM Users Should Do
For subscribers holding a second Airtel number for occasional use, the 7-day incoming service window is the more important deadline to know, not the 90-day one.
A contact trying to reach the number will find it unreachable from Day 8. The number will not be cancelled yet, but it cannot receive anything.
The clearest solution is to keep a valid plan running. For those who want to avoid monitoring the expiry date, Airtel recharge plans include annual options that cover a full year in a single recharge. One recharge, one year, no tracking required.
Recharge Your Airtel Plan on Bajaj Finance
Recharging before Day 8 restores incoming service. Recharging before Day 106 restores the number. The earlier the recharge, the fewer services that need to be restored.
Steps to recharge your Airtel prepaid plan:
- Open the Bajaj Finance app or visit bajajfinserv.in and log in
- Go to Bills and Recharges and select Mobile Recharge
- Select Airtel as your operator and enter your mobile number
- Browse available plans and select the one that suits your usage
- Confirm the recharge amount before completing payment
- Complete the transaction for instant confirmation
TRAI’s 90-day rule protects the Airtel number from cancellation, not the services on it. Outgoing services stop on the day the plan expires. Incoming calls stop after 7 days. After Day 8, all services are off and only the number protection remains. A 15-day grace period after Day 90 gives the last window to recover the number before it is permanently reassigned.
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