Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has started providing additional 20 days validity with its Marutham prepaid plan of Rs 1,188. The Rs 1,188 prepaid plan, which is available in Chennai and Tamil Nadu telecom circles, now offers 365 days validity, up from the earlier validity of 345 days. That said, it's a promotional offer from the government-owned PSU similar to the one it's running on the Rs 1,699 yearly plan. BSNL's Rs 1,188 Marutham plan is available for First Recharge, Migration and Validity Extension prepaid users of BSNL. The additional validity offer on BSNL Marutham plan will be valid till January 16, 2020. In every front, the BSNL Marutham plan does not stand a chance against the Rs 1,699 prepaid plan that's available for all the BSNL users.
BSNL Rs 1,188 Marutham Plan: Benefits and Validity
BSNL introduced the Rs 1,188 Marutham plan a few months back in Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles. The plan was initially launched on a promotional basis, but last month, BSNL extended the availability of the plan by another 90 days. After that extension, the Rs 1,188 Marutham plan will be available for recharge in the two circles till January 21, 2020.
As for the benefits, it's a long-validity prepaid plan from the company and the customers recharging this plan will get unlimited voice calling, 5GB data and 1200 SMSes which will valid for 345 days. As part of the new offer, these benefits will be valid for 365 days from the date of recharge. The offer is also available for the BSNL subscribers in the said circles and it will end on January 16, 2020.
Similar to BSNL's other prepaid plans, the Rs 1,188 PV also caps the voice calls to 250 minutes per day, but the voice calling benefit will be applicable even when the subscribers are in Mumbai and Delhi telecom circles. Unfortunately, this BSNL plan does not offer free voice calling to the MTNL network. BSNL also confirmed the Rs 1,188 Marutham plan would be available for recharge via C-Top-Up, M-Wallet, self-care and the company's web portal. Additionally, users can recharge this plan by heading over to any other digital recharge apps like Paytm, Google Pay and so on.
BSNL Rs 1,188 Lacks on the Benefits Front
BSNL has some impressive prepaid plans under its belt. For example, the company's yearly prepaid plan of Rs 1,699 currently ships with unlimited voice calling, 100 SMSes per day, 2GB data per day (excluding the additional data offer) for a period of 425 days. BSNL is running two promotional offers on the Rs 1,699 plan; Firstly, the validity of the plan is increased by 60 days for a limited period. The second offer allows customers to get up to 3.5GB data per day.
As you can see, the Rs 1,699 prepaid plan from BSNL is way better than the Rs 1,188 prepaid plan. The Rs 1,188 comes in handy for basic users. Also, BSNL is set to hike tariff prices starting December 1, 2019, following the footsteps of other telcos like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio.
We suggest all the BSNL prepaid users perform a recharge of the Rs 1,699 prepaid plan before the company announces tariff price hike next week. Telcos are said to increase tariff plan prices by at least 30% and it will be interesting to see how the subscribers react.
