Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has silently introduced a new prepaid STV of Rs 197 in Mumbai and Delhi circles where it has operations. The STV 197 from MTNL offers benefits on par with Reliance Jio. Yes, you heard it right, on par with Jio and not any other private telecom operators. The telco introduced this plan a while back on February 26, 2018, on a promotional basis, meaning it will be valid for 90 days from the date of introductions. With the STV 197, MTNL is providing 2GB data per day, and unlimited voice calls without any FUP limit for the validity period of 28 days. All the MTNL prepaid subscribers are eligible for this plan.
The STV 197 of MTNL competes with Reliance Jio's Rs 198 tariff plan as it provides the user 2GB data per day for the entire validity period of 28 days, meaning this plan gives 56GB of data. And the data can be used on the home network and national roaming, which is the best part. But sadly, MTNL's data is limited to either 2G or 3G but they have recently updated its 3G network to 3.5G network which can provide speed upto 8Mbps.
Alongside data benefits, this plan also provides the user unlimited voice calls, both local and STD calls from its home network. But on the brighter side, MTNL did not state any FUP limit to the voice calls though. And the STV 197 prepaid plan also offers 300 SMS for the validity period, which is short of Jio's offering as it gives 100 SMS per day with the Rs 198 tariff plan. The SMS benefits also apply to just home network.
The above STV will be available via online/e-recharge & SMS recharge. After the consumption of free data benefit, users will be charged 2 paise per 10 KB of data usage on the network.
This plan from MTNL also shows the company's current scenario. For the unaware, MTNL is also a government-owned telecom operator in India, but it operates only in Mumbai and Delhi circles. While in other circles, BSNL is providing services. MTNL is said to be in a very critical state as the telco is constantly losing subscribers, thanks to affordable Reliance Jio offerings.
