Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks

Out of all the telecom operators present in the industry right now, the state-led telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is the one which has not made the tariff hike on its prepaid plans. All the other telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel, and Reliance Jio, have succumbed to the situations of the telecom industry and have now hiked their tariffs for the subscribers. Now, it is very well known that even before the tariff hike, BSNL has been shipping data with its plans which was more than what the private players were offering. This stands true after the tariff hike as well. In fact, because of the tariff hike, the price to benefit ratio gap between the private telecom operators and BSNL has widened. In case you are a BSNL subscriber, and you have been thinking of porting to another telecom operator, then there are a lot of statements against that reasoning as to why you should not do that. Also, while other telcos are offering the 56 days validity prepaid plans, which is a newly launched one around the price range of Rs 350, BSNL is shipping a similar plan under Rs 200.

BSNL Data Voucher Benefits
The plan that we are talking about here is the Rs 197 data plan from BSNL. This plan by the government led telecom operator is shipping 2GB data per day to the subscribers, and it is available for 54 days. Another benefit that the subscribers get with this plan is PRBT benefit. There is no calling benefit in this prepaid plan. In comparison, the private telecom operators are shipping 56 days validity offering for more than Rs 399 and even more than Rs 400 as well. In the case of Bharti Airtel, the 56 days validity plan shipping 1.5GB data per day to the users is costing Rs 399. Although there is the additional calling benefit included In in this plan, it will be almost double the cost of what the BSNL plan would be. Also, not to forget, that the data benefit which the subscribers will get in this plan would be less than what the BSNL subscribers will get.