Government-owned BSNL announced that its Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) service- Bharat Fiber now has over one million subscribers across the country. BSNL introduced Bharat Fiber service a couple of years ago and the Internet Service Provider (ISP) is currently offering a wide range of plans under the service. BSNL has been the leader in the wired broadband segment for several years and it currently has over 38% market share in the segment, according to Trai data released yesterday. BSNL's broadband speeds were often limited to the lower end of the spectrum, but that has changed in recent times as the ISP even started providing 300 Mbps speeds in select cities.
BSNL Bharat Fiber: What Exactly Is It?
Similar to JioFiber and Airtel Xstream Fiber, BSNL also named its FTTH wired broadband service as Bharat Fiber. Under this brand, BSNL offers competitive broadband plans. For example, BSNL has been offering an Rs 849 broadband plan with 50 Mbps speeds and 600GB FUP limit under Bharat Fiber service. At the same time, it also has basic broadband plans with less than 50 Mbps speeds and not-to-so impressive FUP limits. The telco is generating decent reception from the customers for Bharat Fiber service. Overall, BSNL has 7.80 million broadband customers at the end of September 2020.
A recent report said that BSNL added 88,779 new customers in October 2020, thanks to the launch of affordable Bharat Fiber plans like Rs 449, Rs 599, Rs 799, Rs 999 and Rs 1,499. These broadband plans are on-par with the benefits offered by private ISPs like JioFiber and Airtel Xstream Fiber.
The Bharat Fiber Basic plan of Rs 449 comes with 30 Mbps speeds and 3.3TB FUP limit every month, whereas the Rs 599 Fiber Basic Plus broadband plan offers 60 Mbps speeds and 3.3TB FUP limit. The best part is the plans are available across all the circles where BSNL is providing Bharat Fiber service. With the launch of these new plans, the company is also looking to add over one lakh new connections every month which seems likely.
BSNL is also facing tough competition from JioFiber and Airtel Xstream Fiber with plans starting at just Rs 399 and going up to Rs 3,999, and more. BSNL is yet to launch a 1 Gbps broadband plan and the ISP does not seem to launch the fastest broadband plan anytime soon.
