Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) hasn’t been able to deploy 4G service PAN-India at a time when the other operators are planning to move to 5G. However, the state-run telecom operator still offers prepaid plans that are quite interesting. One particular plan from the telco beats the cheapest prepaid plan from Jio.
For the unaware, Reliance Jio brought back its Rs 98 prepaid plan from the grave a few days back. The plan was discontinued a year back due to unknown reasons. However, users who are excited to purchase the Rs 98 plan from Jio must check out the Rs 97 plan that BSNL offers to its users. This is because the Rs 97 plan from BSNL is not only Rs 1 cheaper but also offers more benefits. Here’s a side by side comparison for you so that you can make your mind.
BSNL Rs 97 Plan Against Reliance Jio’s Rs 98 Prepaid Plan
Starting with the voice calling benefits, note that both the companies offer truly unlimited voice calling to the users around the country. In terms of validity, the Rs 97 plan from BSNL comes for 18 days, while the Rs 98 plan from Reliance Jio comes for 14 days only.
Then in the data department, the Rs 97 plan from BSNL offers users 2GB of daily fair-usage-policy (FUP) data while Jio’s plan offers 1.5GB daily data. In total, with the Rs 97 plan from BSNL, users get 36GB of data for more days, while with Jio’s plan, which is Rs 1 more expensive, users get 21GB of data for fewer days.
There are a few areas where Reliance Jio is ahead of the BSNL’s concerned plan. Firstly, since Jio has a better network infrastructure, its users will get better coverage and speeds around the country when compared with the BSNL’s network. Second, BSNL’s users might be getting 3G speeds most of the time because the telco doesn’t have a widespread 4G network around India.
Third, there are other benefits included with Reliance Jio’s plan, such as JioCinema, JioCloud, JioTV, and more. BSNL’s plan comes with free access to the Lokdhum content, which not a lot of users really appreciate.
Both the plans have their pros and cons. At the end of the day, in terms of benefits, BSNL’s plan is ahead of Jio’s plan. However, if you are more concerned about the network quality and the data speed, you should consider going with Reliance Jio’s plan. If you are a user who just makes calls and uses data for average needs, you can settle with BSNL’s Rs 97 plan without any hesitation.