Airtel Xstream Fiber and JioFiber are the broadband arms of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. Both the telcos have expanded their business in the fiber broadband market quite fast. Especially through the pandemic, the fixed-line broadband business for both the top telecom operators grew in India. However, there’s also Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in the competition, whose biggest strength is the number of places and circles its services are available in. On top of that, the broadband plans from BSNL are quite similar to the plans offered by Airtel Xstream Fiber and JioFiber.
Airtel Xstream Fiber, JioFiber and BSNL Bharat Fibre Plans Quite Competitive
Airtel Xstream Fiber, JioFiber, and BSNL Bharat Fibre all provide plans to their users with close to an identical amount of fair-usage-policy (FUP) data with almost every plan. Each operator provides 3.3TB data with most of its plans to the users, which is more than enough for a large family.
In terms of over-the-top (OTT) benefits, both JioFiber and Airtel Xstream Fiber provides users with a plethora of options, with JioFiber taking the lead marginally as it offers a free subscription to more number of OTT platforms.
But BSNL Bharat Fibre provides its users with the kind of OTT benefit that none of the other fiber service providers offers. That is the benefit of Disney+ Hotstar Premium. Every other operator offers a Disney+ Hotstar VIP subscription to the users. But BSNL offers the Premium subscription for one year.
Further, every operator, including Airtel, Jio and BSNL, offers its users a free landline connection. There is no limit on the number of calls users can make through the landline connection. In terms of speeds offered, Airtel and Jio take the lead from BSNL when it comes to super-high-speed plans such as 500 Mbps and 1 Gbps.
The maximum speed a BSNL Bharat Fibre plan provides to the users is 300 Mbps which is quite low than the maximum speed plan offered by Jio and Airtel, which is 1 Gbps. Airtel Xstream Fiber and JioFiber have been adding new subscribers at a very good rate. BSNL can bank on the subscribers that live in the rural areas and offer them strong entry-level broadband plans with OTT benefits.
Overall, in an area where all the three operators are providing services, BSNL Bharat Fibre can give strong competition to the broadband plans offered by Airtel Xstream Fiber and JioFiber. The only thing that BSNL needs to improve is the consistency of services and after-sales support.