BSNL Rs. 171 Recharge With 2GB Data per Day Launched to Take on Rs. 198 Jio Recharge

In a bid to take on Jio and Airtel's run in the Indian telecom market, state-owned operator BSNL has reportedly released a new prepaid pack that is available only in the Andhra Pradesh & Telangana circle. Priced at Rs. 171, the BSNL recharge is said to offer 2GB of 2G/ 3G data per day, unlimited voice calls, and 100 SMS messages per day with a validity of 30 days. This takes the reported total data benefits to 60GB and gives the pack a per GB cost of just about Rs. 2.85. The new Rs. 171 BSNL recharge takes on the popular Rs. 198 Jio recharge that has the same daily data allocation but lower validity, meaning lesser total bundled data.

The roaming call benefits in this pack are also applicable in Mumbai and Delhi telecom circles, reports Telecom Talk. With other BSNL packs it is usually seen that coverage for free calls is not provided in these two circles considering BSNL does not operate in them. Additionally, the unlimited calling in this prepaid pack is said to come without a daily or weekly limit, and there is no data offered after the daily limit gets over.

As mentioned earlier, Reliance Jio has its Rs. 198 prepaid pack that comes with similar benefits - 2GB of 4G data per day, unlimited voice calls, and 100 SMS messages per day - but has a slightly lesser validity of 28 days compared to 30 days with the BSNL offering. Airtel also has a similarly priced pack that offers 1.4GB 3G/ 4G data per day, unlimited voice calling, and 100 SMS messages per day for 28 days at Rs. 199. BSNL manages to beat both of these packs in terms of value for money. However, a recent development suggested that Vodafone's Rs. 199 prepaid pack has been revised for select users to provide up to 2.8GB of 3G/ 4G data per day, for 28 days, with similar calling benefits and no free SMS messages.

Last month, BSNL introduced a new special tariff voucher (STV) priced at Rs. 19. This affordable pack offers users with the ability to make on-net voice calls at 15 paise per minute and off-net calls at 35 paise per minute, with a validity of 54 days. It is currently available only in the Tamil Nadu and Chennai circles.

Will Jio Phone 2 help WhatsApp, YouTube reach the next billion users in India? We discussed that on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.