BSNL to Facilitate Internet Calling for People in Rural and Remote Areas at Rs 1099

To counter Reliance Jio’s launch of FTTH services, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited the state-owned telco has come up with its own portfolio of three new offerings to retain its existing subscriber base and to attract new subscribers. Firstly, the government led telco has debuted the Wings App, a VoIP internet calling service which will enable the users in rural and remote places with no cellular connectivity to make calls over the internet. The service will be open for subscription with just an activation charge of Rs 1,099 and it will be entirely free for the first year. Second, the telco has brought a new prepaid landline connection, wherein subscribers will be able to use the landline for calling as they have been using prepaid mobile services. Lastly, there is also a rent-free landline connection for existing subscribers as a part of BSNL’s new offerings.

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Notably, the development of Wings App by BSNL became possible when in May the Telecom Commission, headed by Aruna Sundarajan cleared the Internet telephony recommendation which allowed the operators to use a single number for both internet and cellular telephony. Not only this, other telecom operators like Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone have also now started testing this VoWiFi services owing to the recent amendment.

With the new Wings initiative, BSNL seeks to bring the people living in remote and rural areas on-board. It is the telco’s vision that using VoIP users in these places, they will be able to make calls using broadband, Wi-Fi, 4G, or the 3G Internet. Initially, voice and video calling will be free for an entire year; users will only have to pay for the activation charge of Rs 1,099. Video calls, however, will be limited to Wings-to-Wings calls. To place a call, they will have to open the app and dial the number from their phone address book through the app. Interestingly, the app will also be configurable on a laptop or mobile phones being a SIP client.