BSNL Hopes To Combat Reliance Jio Domination With Promotional Broadband Plan At INR 1 Per GB

State-run telecom provider BSNL has announced a low-cost promotional plan for hooking existing and new subscribers. The new plan will provide 1GB data/INR 1 for unlimited broadband data and is called “Experience Unlimited BB 249.”

It will be launched on September 9, 2016.

This plan is an attempt to head off recently-launched Reliance Jio’s dominance towards attracting 100 Mn subscribers.

According to an official statement, “Under this plan, customers can download unlimited broadband data without bothering about any data limit. BSNL shall offer 2 Mbps speed under this plan.”

The offering is aimed at heavy Internet users who will continuously use data worth 300GB (the maximum upper limit). They will pay only INR 249 for the same. “Hence, per GB data download cost comes out to be less than INR 1 per 1GB. After six months, the customer will be migrated to one of the regular broadband plans based on the choice of the customer,” BSNL said.

This announcement comes within days of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio unveiled plans to offer data to consumers at INR25-INR50 per GB on a 4G connection. This statement was made at Ambani’s AGM where he stated categorically that data should be ‘affordable’ to everyone in the country and the current plans of INR 250 per GB are four times higher than average rates.

“The plan will enhance the customer experience towards wireline broadband services and attract new users to experience BSNL broadband services,” added BSNL’s Chairman cum Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava.

Currently, Airtel, Vodafone and IDEA Cellular, the three major players in the telecom provider sector have plans costing an average of INR 250 for 1.2 GB for 28 days, for pre- and postpaid connections across the country.

This development was first reported by PTI.