Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is slowly catching up with private telecom operators in terms of postpaid tariff plans. Earlier, the telco was nowhere close to the private telecom operators, but now, the revised BSNL postpaid plans are in-line with those of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. BSNL's Rs 1125 postpaid plan competes with Airtel's Rs 1199 postpaid plan and offers better benefits that Vodafone RED International R plan of Rs 1299. BSNL is offering unlimited voice calls even on roaming and 90GB of data with its Rs 1125 postpaid plan, while Airtel is offering the same benefits with its Rs 1199 plan.
Talking more about the BSNL Rs 1125 plan, it offers unlimited voice calls even on roaming, and there's no limit for the voice calls though. It also provides 90GB of data and 250 SMS for the entire validity period. The SMS benefit is something which lets down this plan of BSNL because Airtel and other telcos are just throwing in unlimited SMS per day (limited to 100 per day) with almost every plan of them.
Another setback for BSNL is the lack data rollover thing. Almost all the leading telcos (Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular) are offering data rollover scheme, allowing users to carry forward the unused data from this month to the preceding month. Airtel started this feature, which is followed by Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
But in BSNL's case, a user has to finish off the alloted 90GB data, otherwise, the data will lapse. As stated, Airtel is offering similar benefits as the BSNL Rs 1125 plan with its Rs 1199 plan, while Vodafone is offering 75GB data with data rollover, unlimited voice calls, 100 SMS (as per the company's website) at Rs 1299. Vodafone's plan is the premium of the three operators and taxes will make the plan even more premium. Do make a note that BSNL's Rs 1125 plan mentioned in the article is exclusive of taxes.
Alongside the standard benefits, telcos such as Airtel and Vodafone are offering several media consumption benefits such as Airtel TV, Vodafone Play, but there's nothing as such from BSNL, which is another letdown for the state-run telco.
