To Counter Jio, BSNL Launches Rs 249 Plan. Details Here

To Counter Jio, BSNL Launches Rs 249 Plan. Details Here

Telecom players are launching new plans every other day to retain customers and halt Reliance Jio's aggressive attempts to grab market share.

BSNL launched a Rs 249 Plan with 1GB of data per day

Reliance Jio's disruptive entry in to the Indian telecom industry has triggered a pricing war among operators. Established telecom players are launching new plans every other day to retain customers and halt Reliance Jio’s aggressive attempts to grab market share. Even state-owned telecom players are not keeping themselves away from this competition. In its latest bid to match up with Reliance Jio's offering, state-owned telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has launched a voice and data centric plan for Rs. 249, which will provide unlimited voice and 1 GB data per day for 28 days for prepaid mobile customers.

BSNL's Rs. 249 plan gives free voice (local and STD) on BSNL to BSNL calls and 1 GB of data per day for 28 days on pan-India basis a tweet by the company said.

The state-run telecom operator has also launched a voice and data centric plan for Rs. 429, which will provide unlimited voice and 1 GB data per day for 90 days for prepaid mobile customers.

BSNL's Rs. 429 plan gives free voice (local and STD) on any network and 90 GB data (1 GB per day) for 90 days on pan-India basis (except Kerala Circle).

However BSNL’s Rs 249 offer has been undercut by Airtel and Jio. Airtel, India’s largest telecom operator, has offered a Rs. 149 plan which includes unlimited Airtel to Airtel calls plus 2GB data at 4G speed with 28 days validity.

Meanwhile Jio's Rs. 149 plan offers unlimited local and STD calls to any mobile or landline across India plus 2 GB data for 28 days.

Airtel also announced that it has launched Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) services in Mumbai to improve call quality for its users, becoming the second Indian telecom operator after Jio to offer this service.
  
Recently, the Cabinet approved hiving off about 66,500 mobile towers of state-run BSNL into a separate company with a view to monetising them by either listing the new entity or leasing the masts to private firms. BSNL owns 15 per cent of the 4,42,000 mobile towers in the country. A tower company owns the passive infrastructure and leases it to telecom service providers enabling them to minimise duplication of investments and economise on costs of operation and maintenance, leading to improvement in profitability.

With the launch of a revised "Dhan Dhana Dhan" offer last month, Reliance Jio customers now have more options to recharge their Jio numbers. In good news for Jio customers, the telecom operator has extended the benefits of its Dhan Dhana Dhan offer with new plans as the benefits under its Summer Surprise scheme has come to an end. With a new recharge pack priced at Rs. 399, Jio's existing and new Prime members will get 1 GB of data per day at 4G speed for 84 days along with free voice calls, SMS (short message service) and access to MyJio app services.

Under the revised Dhan Dhana Dhan offer, Jio Prime members who had availed the Summer Surprise offer can now recharge their numbers for Rs. 309 to get 1 GB of 4G data daily for 56 days, as against 28 days earlier. The Rs. 309 recharge pack was one of the most popular recharge plans offered by Jio.

Meanwhile, Jio has launched a new recharge plan at Rs. 349, which offers 20 GB of 4G data with a validity of 56 days without any daily limit. You can use the entire 20 GBs of data even in one day or spend it over 56 days. After you consume the 56 GBs of high speed data, the internet speed will be reduced to 128 kbps, Jio said. 

(Check out Jio’s other offers)
 

Source:NDTV