The tariff war in India’s highly competitive telecom market is shifting from mobile to broadband. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, the state-owned telecom player, has announced a new Rs 491 landline broadband plan, which it calls the “most economic broadband plan” in the country.
The new broadband plan from the telecom operator offers 20GB of data per day for one month. With Rs 491 plan, BSNL’s landline users get broadband speeds up to 20Mbps alongside access to unlimited voice calls to any network. The plan was announced in a tweet by the telecom operator and BSNL’s board member N.K. Mehta said that the plan will appeal to both individual, small and medium entrepreneur. “BSNL is committed to offer high quality, most affordable and data services which meets everyone’s expectations,” Mehta added.
With the launch of JioFiber, the FTTH broadband service from Reliance Jio on the cards, BSNL has been revising oth its broadband and mobile plans lately. The effort can be seen as a way to retain existing customers who might switch to Jio when it begins commercial availability of fiber broadband service. Bharti Airtel and BSNL are currently the leaders in India’s broadband market but they will soon face pressure and tariff war like the one seen in the mobile segment when JioFiber broadband services become available.
BSNL, in particular, has been at the forefront of revising most of its existing broadband plans. The company recently revised its non-FTTH broadband plans that now start at Rs 99 a month and offer 20Mbps speeds. It also announced free access to broadband plans for two months on purchase of a new laptop or a PC. These customers were eligible for the BSNL BBG Combo ULD 45GB plan that was launched recently and is priced at Rs 99.
BSNL also introduced two new FTTH plans in June called Fibro Combo ULD 777 and Fibro Combo ULD 1277. The Rs 77 plan offers data speed of 50Mbps and has a FUP of 500GB data. The Fibro Combo ULD 1277 plan priced at Rs 1,277 offers a data FUP of 750GB and has speed of up to 100Mbps.
