BSNL has announced a new broadband plan of Rs 491 on a pan-India basis. The all-new Rs 491 plan has been announced targeting new customers who want to join the BSNL broadband network. This plan from BSNL comes with daily data benefit same as the current prepaid plans. For the users choosing this plan, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) will be providing 20GB of high-speed data per day at 20 Mbps, post which the speeds will be reduced to 1 Mbps. The same will continue for the entire rental period. Interested customers can head over to BSNL portals in their respective state and raise a new connection request. This plan announcement from BSNL comes right after the launch of two high-speed broadband plans of Rs 777 and Rs 1,277.
It is notable that yesterday was also the day of Reliance Industries’ Annual General Meeting which witnessed the announcement of Reliance Jio’s new host of services in the FTTH( Fibre-to-the-Home) sector. Reliance Jio announced its new services of Jio GigaFiber and Jio GigaTV. Under this new name, Jio will be providing its fibre broadband service with 1Gbps speed to 1,100 cities initially. The registration for the service would start on August 15th on My Jio app and Jio official website.
Given the latest announcement of Jio’s GigaFiber and its plan of entering the fibre broadband sector, other incumbent telecom operators providing broadband services might be threatened. Jio’s past record has established the fact that the Mukesh Ambani led telco is set for disruption in yet another industry after triggering the data tariff war. Keeping this in mind, BSNL’s roll out of this new ‘most economic broadband plan’ might be a defence towards what is yet to come from Reliance Jio’s side.
Also, in June this year, BSNL introduced two new FTTH (Fibre-to-the-Home) plans priced at Rs 777 and Rs 1,277. Under the Rs 777 plan the telco is offering 500 GB monthly data at 50 Mbps, and under the pricier Rs. 1277 plan the telco is offering 750 GB monthly data at 100 Mbps speed.
Right now, BSNL and Bharti Airtel are leading telecom operators in the home broadband services sector. However, with Reliance Jio on the verge of launching its fibre broadband services, the move is seen to be a threat to other two entities. Like the data tariff war has highlighted, Reliance Jio has definite plans of bringing revolution in yet another industry at the cost of cut throat competition.