As part of its plans to attract more users to its service, struggling State-owned telecom giant, BSNL, has launched a new prepaid plan that offers 2 GB of data per day for 210 days (7 months) at Rs. 998. It is worth noting though, that it is a data-only STV without any voice or SMS benefits. Also, once the allotted data bucket is exhausted, speeds will be reduced to 80kbps.
It’s worth noting here that according to TelecomTalk, the new recharge option is only available in Kerala, with no word on when (or if) it will be rolled out to the rest of the country. Overall, subscribers to this plan will be able to use up to 420 GB of data over its 7-month validity period, although, it will still be at 3GB speeds, given that the company is yet to roll out its 4G services in most of the other circles.
Alongside utmost apathy and extreme mismanagement, the inability to offer 4G services is what’s hurt BSNL the most over the past few years, resulting in crippling losses and a massive erosion of market share. The company has only just received government approval to seek airwaves in the 2100 Mhz band for 4G services at a time when the game has already moved on and carriers around the world are prepping to deploy 5G networks.
BSNL had launched its 4G services in Kerala early last year, and followed that up by rolling it out in Bangalore a few weeks later. The company is also testing its VoLTE services on a number of different smartphone models, and is expected to deploy its 4G network on the 2100 Mhz band in all 21 licensed service areas except Rajasthan, where it has airwaves in the 800 MHz range.
