Can BSNL Beat Jio and Airtel in Tariff Plan?
BSNL's new partnership with TCS and stable pricing may attract users from Jio and Airtel following their recent tariff hikes.
Mobile phones and internet have become an essential part of our lives. Until now, Jio and Airtel have dominated the 4G internet service market. This has put significant competitive pressure on the government-owned telecommunication service provider, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), causing it to lag behind.
However, things are about to change. Last month, Jio, Airtel, and VI (Vodafone Idea) announced a price hike in their recharge plans. Jio's price increase is the highest, ranging from 12% to 25%. For example, Jio’s most popular plan, which provided 1.5 GB data per day for 28 days, has increased from ?239 to ?299.
Similarly, Airtel's prices rose by 11% to 21%, and VI's by 10% to 21%. Jio and Airtel implemented the new tariffs from 3rd July 2024 onwards, and VI from 4th July 2024. The new prices made users, especially Jio users, very unhappy. People created and shared memes about it, joking that Mukesh Ambani increased the prices to pay for his son Anant Ambani’s extravagant pre-wedding and wedding functions.
While its competitors were increasing tariffs, BSNL did not. Its most popular monthly plan, which provides 2GB data per day for 45 days, still costs ?249. Instead, BSNL focused on strengthening its market position. According to reports, BSNL has started a new venture with Tata Group’s IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to enhance their mobile connectivity throughout India.
On 22nd May 2024, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that it received an Advance Purchase Order (APO) valued at over ?15,000 crore from BSNL. With this collaboration, BSNL aims to bring high-speed 4G connectivity to over 1,000 villages, boosting India’s rural mobile internet services ambitiously. BSNL and TCS have already installed around 9,000 4G towers in villages in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh. BSNL aims to increase the number of its 4G towers to 1 lakh, with Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu villages next in line.
This partnership is expected to revolutionize mobile internet speeds in Indian villages and lay the groundwork for introducing 5G internet in rural India in the future. BSNL receiving this prominent backing from Ratan Tata’s TCS could pose a significant challenge to Jio and Airtel.
Several reports state that the tariff hikes by Jio and Airtel, combined with BSNL's collaboration with TCS, have caused many people to switch to BSNL. Since these tariff hikes, about 2,50,000 people have already switched to BSNL using mobile number portability (MNP), with numerous more in the process.
When Jio launched as an economical mobile data service provider, lakhs of people shifted to it because of more data at cheaper tariffs. Now that Jio and Airtel have increased their tariffs drastically, while BSNL has not, and is even working to provide better services at the same price, will Jio lose a huge chunk of its customers to BSNL?
Tell us in the comments.
