Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced a new prepaid voucher of Rs 398 which will offer truly unlimited voice calling and data benefits to the user. To clarify, truly unlimited here means without fair usage policy (FUP) restrictions. Users will be able to make unlimited downloads/uploads and voice calls within India without worrying about exhausting FUP limits. It is worthy to note that none of the other prepaid offerings from any of the telecom operators including Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi), and Reliance Jio come with such a benefit — more on the story ahead.
BSNL Rs 398 Voucher Details
According to a report from KeralaTelecom, the Rs 398 prepaid voucher from BSNL will offer users truly unlimited data and voice calling benefits. The validity of this plan will be 30 days, and within these 30 days, the user can make unlimited downloads and uploads without worrying about any FUP limit.
In addition to the voice calling and data benefits, users will also get 100 SMS/day without additional cost. The unlimited voice calling and SMS benefits will also be applicable in the roaming and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) network areas including Delhi and Mumbai.
Users won’t be able to make outgoing calls or SMSs to premium numbers, international numbers, IN numbers, and other chargeable shortcodes for free. Any outgoing call or SMS to these numbers will attract standard charges. The state-run telecom operator reserves the right for discontinuing services for a user subscribed to this plan without any prior notice if he/she is found participating in any malpractice/misuse/fraudulent behaviour.
The Rs 398 voucher from BSNL will be available for users to subscribe to from January 10, 2021. Also, the plan will be available for every telecom circle of the country.
It is quite unclear if this plan will give a tough competition to other telecom operators. While it is true that none of the other operators offers truly unlimited data, they still offer best-in-class 4G services to their users. At the same time, BSNL is still in the process of shifting from 3G to 4G and when it will exactly happen is unclear.
So the users will get unlimited voice calling and unlimited data in a true sense, but at low-speeds and an inferior quality network. Only time will tell how accepting users will be of this plan. It would still fall under the expensive category since it will cost almost Rs 400 for a month. Some would argue why not go for a postpaid plan around this price and get over-the-top (OTT) benefits.
