BSNL has now extended the availability of Rs 1,188 Marutham plan by another 90 days. Back in July this year, BSNL launched the long-validity Rs 1,188 plan for prepaid customers under the promotional basis for 90 days. However, the plan seems to have got a decent response from the customers and the company will now provide the plan until January 21, 2020. The original expiry of the plan was October 23, 2019, but it will be valid for 90 days. BSNL has the habit of extending a particular plan availability on a promotional basis, depending on the response from customers for that plan. BSNL's Marutham Rs 1,188 prepaid plan is only available in Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles as the company is offering the same plan at different denomination in other circles.
BSNL Rs 1,188 Marutham Plan: What it Offers to the Customers?
Talking about the benefits of the Marutham plan, it's said to be applicable only for new BSNL customers who're joining the network. The long-validity prepaid plan from BSNL ships with unlimited voice calling including Mumbai and Delhi, 5GB of data and 1200 SMSes for a period of 345 days. BSNL also says the voice calls will be limited to just 250 minutes per day, post which the company will start charging users at standard call rates. As mentioned above, the BSNL Marutham plan will be available in only Chennai and Tamil Nadu telecom circles for now.
The benefits of the BSNL Marutham plan are pretty basic, but again, it's a plan voucher aimed at the customers who're joining the telco for the first time. The Rs 1,699 prepaid plan offers way better benefits compared to the Marutham plan, including unlimited voice calling without any FUP Limit, 3.5GB data per day and 100 SMSes per day for a period of 365 days. The validity of the Marutham plan is pretty decent, but the benefits do not inspire confidence.
In Andhra Pradesh & Telangana telecom circle, BSNL has a similarly priced prepaid plan of Rs 1,149 that offers benefits of 250 minutes voice calls per day, 12GB of data and 1000 SMSes for 365 calendar days. Again the Rs 1,149 prepaid plan in the said circle is limited to new customers or the users who extend their account validity. So in almost every circle, BSNL is providing a prepaid plan of under Rs 1,200 aimed at the new customers and basic users.
BSNL's Removal of Unlimited Voice Calling Comes as a Blow to the Users
Back in August this year, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has made a disappointing move in the sector by implementing voice calling cap on a daily basis. Several unlimited combo prepaid plans of BSNL now offers just 250 minutes of voice calls per day, after which the telco will start charging customers from the talk time balance. BSNL has removed some of the popular plans like Rs 187 and Rs 1,699 from the list of plans which come with daily calling limit, but the limitation is something not going very well with the customers.
BSNL has tried its best to compete with private telcos, but at the end, the PSU is not receiving any support from the government, so it's forced to make some non-customer centric moves going forward. For the unaware, most of the unlimited combo plans from BSNL now offer just 250 minutes of voice calls per day, which is underwhelming. Back in 2017, private telcos like Airtel and Vodafone Idea used to have a limit on voice calls, but they have removed it to offer truly unlimited voice calling to the users.
