Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on Sunday unveiled a “Work from Home” plan to aid users working and studying from home across India. The unveiling of the plan is on the heels of the companies in India largely sticking to the “Work from Home” model despite the eased restrictions across several states in India. The Indian government in late March announced a total lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the government eased restrictions on the lockdown in early May and India headed into the “Unlock 1.0” in June that paved the way for many offices to reopen. While India is currently under the second phase of unlocking dubbed as “Unlock 2.0,” several states across India have imposed city wide or district wide lockdowns. The fluid situation has also resulted in several students forced to adapt to the digital platforms for education.
Work from Home BSNL Plan
The state-run BSNL “Work from Home” plan priced at Rs 599 enables users to browse high speed data up to 5GB per day and at 80 Kbps upon reaching the 5GB limit. Additionally, the “Work from Home” BSNL plan also enables users to make unlimited local and STD calls up to 250 minutes per day. Further, the Rs 599 plan from BSNL with a validity of 90 days also enables users to send 100 SMS per day for no additional cost.
Work from Home Reliance Jio Plan
Reliance Jio, the largest cellular operator in India has been offering “Work from Home” plans since March. While the company initially rolled out a Rs 251 data add-on pack, Reliance Jio has since expanded its offerings to multiple “Work from Home” plans in the recent months. However, the dedicated “Work from Home” plans offer only data benefits to its users with the operator requiring its users to opt for additional packs for voice and SMS benefits.
The company offers three major “Work from Home” data packs with the base priced at Rs 151 providing 30GB of high speed data. Further, Reliance Jio offers Rs 201 and Rs 251 packs with 40GB and 50GB data benefits respectively.
While the operator does not offer a dedicated “Work from Home” pack with voice, data and SMS benefits, Reliance Jio does offer an Rs 599 plan.
The Rs 599 plan from Reliance Jio enables users to browse high speed data up to 2GB per day along with unlimited calling to Jio numbers and 100 SMS per day. Further, the Rs 599 with a validity of 84 days enables users to make voice calls up to 3000 minutes for no additional cost. The Rs 599 plan also provides users a complimentary access to JioApps.
Work from Home Airtel Plan
Similar to Reliance Jio, the second largest telecom operator in India offers a Rs 598 plan with voice, SMS and data benefits to users.
The Rs 598 plan from Airtel enables users to make unlimited local and STD calls to any network across India along with high speed data up to 1.5GB per day. Further, the Rs 598 plan with a validity of 84 days also enables users to send 100 SMS per day.
While the company does not have a dedicated “Work from Home” plan, Airtel does offer data add-on packs with up to 50GB of additional data. However, the data add-on packs of Airtel does not have a standalone validity nor SMS and voice benefits.
Work from Home Vodafone Idea Plan
The third largest cellular operator in India offers a dedicated “Work from Home” data add-on pack priced at Rs 251 with data benefits of 50GB. The “Work from Home” data add-on pack from Vodafone has a 28 day validity with no voice or SMS benefits.
Similar to BSNL, the company has a Rs 599 plan with unlimited voice calls and 100 SMS per day benefit along with an app and web exclusive offer. The 599 plan also enables users to browse 1.5GB of daily high speed data throughout the validity of the plan and an 5GB of bonus data for the initial 28 days. It has to be noted that bonus 5GB data is available to users who recharge through the app and web portals.
Additionally, the Rs 599 plan with 84 days validity also offers complimentary access to Vodafone Play and Zee5 subscription.
