The changes we all have been expecting for nearly four months now are finally here. BSNL has officially reduced the validity of its popular Rs 1,699 annual plan to 300 days. This essentially means that the unlimited combo annual plan from BSNL will be the recently launched Rs 1,999 pack. Besides the Rs 1,699 prepaid plan, the government-owned telco also revised five more plans- PV 186, STV 187, STV 98, STV 99 and STV 319. The PV 186 and STV 187 now offer less data benefit, while the STV 98, STV 99 and STV 319 come with less validity. The revised prepaid plans will be effective from April 1 across the country. This is a bad move from BSNL as the company is just managing to beat the private telcos like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea.
BSNL Rs 1,699 Yearly Plan Revised: Check New Benefits
Private telecom operators brought a price hike in December 2019 as part of which they increased the tariffs by up to 40%. However, BSNL did not increase the tariff prices because it lacks 3G services and it also makes no sense to hike the prepaid plan prices. The price hike from BSNL was always on the cards and it is finally here. Instead of revising the plan prices, BSNL has reduced the data benefit and validity of the current plans.
The Rs 1,699 yearly plan from BSNL has been revised to offer less validity. Benefits of the plan remain the same and they include 250 minutes of voice calls per day, 100 SMSes per day and 2GB daily data for 300 days. After the completion of 250 minutes, users will be charged according to the base plan and the data speed reduces to 80 Kbps after the allotted daily benefit.
With the Rs 1,699 annual plan, users will also get benefits of Lokdhun content for 60 days and BSNL Tunes subscription with unlimited song change option for 300 days.
BSNL Reduces Data Benefit of PV 186 and STV 187
Alongside the Rs 1,699 annual plan, the budget combo plans of PV 186 and STV 187 have received a revision as well. Both the prepaid packs will now offer 250 minutes of voice calls per day, unlimited data benefit with speed reduction to 80 Kbps after 2GB daily data and 100 SMSes per day for 28 days.
Before the revision, the STV 187 and PV 186 used to ship with 3GB daily data benefit and it has now been reduced to 2GB. It is an unusual change from BSNL considering several citizens are now looking for such high data plans on a budget since they are working from home.
BSNL STV 98, STV 99 and STV 319 Receives Validity Reduction
Lastly, there are three more BSNL prepaid plans which now come with reduced validity. The STV 98 which has been one of the best data-only plans from BSNL now offers benefits of unlimited data capped at 2GB per day and Eros Now subscription for 22 days. The STV 99 which allows a user to consume 250 minutes of voice calling per day also received a validity reduction from 24 days to 22 days.
Lastly, the STV 319 which is also known as a voice-only plan from BSNL now offers benefits for 75 days from the earlier 84 days. The benefits of STV 319 include 250 minutes of voice calls per day in Home LSA & national roaming excluding Mumbai & Delhi circles.
All the revised benefits will become effective on April 1, 2020, across all the circles where BSNL is operating now. What do you think of this revision from BSNL? Let us know in the comments section below.
