Government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has increased the FUP limit on three of its FTTH plans by 50GB. The three broadband plans in question are BSNL Fibro BBG ULD 1045 CS48, BSNL Fibro BBG ULD 1395 CS49 and BSNL Fibro BBG ULD 1895 CS129. The plans are priced at Rs 1045, Rs 1,395 and Rs 1,895 and they now offer 50GB more data than the earlier FUP. The Rs 1045 plan offers broadband speeds of 30 Mbps, followed by the Rs 1,395 plan with 40 Mbps speeds and lastly, the premium Rs 1,895 plan gives the user download speeds of up to 50 Mbps. On the whole, this is a nice move from BSNL considering Jio's goals in the broadband segment.
The base FTTH plan of Rs 1045 now offers 30 Mbps speeds till 150GB and the Rs 1,395 plan provides speeds of 40 Mbps till 200GB. The premium Rs 1,895 BSNL FTTH plan gives a user 50 Mbps of data speeds and 250GB of FUP per month. All the three plans come with 2 Mbps after FUP speed. Other benefits offered by these plans are unlimited voice calls within BSNL network, unlimited voice calls to any network between 10:30 PM and 6 AM and free voice calling on Sundays. Earlier, the same plans offered 100GB, 150GB and 200GB FUP limit on a monthly basis.
All the existing BSNL broadband users will get the revised FUP benefit from their next monthly rental, while the new customers will receive the revised benefits right away. As of now, it's said that these new plans are meant only for Kerala circle, but the telco might revise them on a pan-India basis in the coming weeks.
The Mukesh Ambani-led firm Reliance Jio is aiming to grab 50 million broadband users going forward. With over ten years of operations, BSNL managed to grab just over 10 million subscribers, even after providing users affordable offers. Increasing FUP limit on broadband plans is a good move from the state-run PSU, but it's nowhere close to what private broadband players are offering. For example, Airtel has done away with the FUP limit on its broadband plans in Hyderabad city and it's expected to remove FUP limit on broadband plans in all the cities. ACT Fibernet, on the other hand, silently increased the data speeds on some of its broadband plans in Hyderabad city. It will be interesting to see how BSNL retains its market share in the future.
