Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is offering users 1GB of data for Rs 1.42 only. While there are other operators such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel who offer very economical data rates with their long-term prepaid plans, BSNL has taken it a step further and is offering arguably the cheapest data prepaid plan in India. Note that this is a not a standalone data voucher that can be purchased for Rs 1.42, against which you will receive 1GB of data. I am talking about a prepaid plan from the telco that offers everything a user wants and that too at a very low cost.
BSNL Prepaid Plan That Offers 1GB of Data for Rs 1.42 Only
BSNL offers a prepaid plan to the users for Rs 599. This plan is called ‘STV_WFH_599’. It comes for Rs 599 and offers users a validity of 84 days. With this plan, users get truly unlimited voice calling and 100 SMS/day along with 5GB daily data. This means the total data that this plan offers to the users is 420GB.
None of the other companies offers a prepaid plan to the users for 84 days which gives this much amount of data. Essentially, with this plan, the user has to pay only Rs 1.42 for each GB of data that he/she consumes. There is a free benefit of Zing offered to the users as well.
If this much data is also less for you, you can purchase an add-on data voucher from the company for Rs 251. This voucher is called ‘DATA_WFH_251’. It offers users 70GB of data along with a free subscription to Zing for 28 days. With this data add-on plan, users get 1GB of data for Rs 3.58, which is exactly twice the cost of the data that users get with the Rs 599 prepaid plan of the telco.
There’s one drawback of purchasing a BSNL prepaid plan, though. It is that users don’t get PAN-India 4G connectivity, and even the 3G network isn’t as strong as one would hope. This plan makes sense for someone who doesn’t travel a lot and lives in a zone where BSNL’s 4G network is pretty strong.
There is no other prepaid plan in the market that offers 5GB of daily data to the users for any sort of duration. BSNL is the only telco that is doing it, and regardless of that, the telco is losing customers. If the state-run telco can improve its network aggressively, it might be able to improve its subscriber market share dramatically in a short period.