Reliance Jio is making wonders with its extremely low tariff plans. It is giving a really tough time to all other telecom giants such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc. Now, an unexpected player has decided to tackle this Jio menace head-on! It is the public sector telecom behemoth BSNL. Earlier, they announced an extremely cheap unlimited broadband plan at just Rs.249. Now, BSNL will offer free voice calls at tariffs which will be lower than that of Jio.
It was expected that the prices will plunge but we did not expect BSNL to take the lead. A top BSNL official has confirmed that they are going to slash the charges and make them even lower than Jio.
This will force all others service providers to cut down and hence will start a price war in the nation. BSNL is planning to offer free calls, just like Jio but at even lower tariffs. Another difference is that Jio is only offering 4G subscriptions. BSNL will offer 2G as well as 3G plans which the majority of the people are using in the country.
Anupam Shrivastava, Chairman and MD, BSNL, said that they are closely observing the market as well as the performance of Jio. They are planning to start free voice plans from the start of 2017 and they will make sure that their plans are cheaper than Jio’s. The difference could be of Rs.2-4.
BSNL already has a strong presence in regions such as Haryana, HP, Punjab, Kerala, Odisha and UP. However, the PSU is absent in key areas like Delhi and Mumbai which are serviced by MTNL.
They will be introducing the above-mentioned plans at prices lower than the entry price of Rs.149 set by Jio. The plans will be offered to mobile customers who are also using broadband at home.
When asked how BSNL will offer free voice…
Shrivastava said that the key idea behind this is to use home broadband to route outgoing calls from mobile phones through landline network as people tend to spend a lot of time at home.
However, free calls could also be made when people leave their homes.
Prashant Singhal, Partner, Ernst & Young, said this will obviously put pressure on the competition. At the same time, it is also a risk as BSNL’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) could take a serious hit.
