State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Tuesday termed Reliance Jio’s entry into the market as a “challenge” for all operators, but said it expects to match the intense competition “tariff-by-tariff”.
BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava has said that they will adopt an aggressive stance on tariffs going forward.
It is a question of survival in the market... there is no other way but to match Jio, tariff-by-tariff. If tariff of Jio is aggressive, the tariff of BSNL and of all other operators is also going to be aggressive.Anupam Shrivastava, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL
The statement comes after BSNL launching a promotional unlimited broadband plan, a day after Reliance Jio made public its 4G plans, that translate into Rs 1/GB for its users. The plan is called the Experience Unlimited Broadband 249 (BB249) which promises to offer speeds up to 2Mbps, with no fair usage policy (FUP) conditions.
BSNL will offer this plan from 9 September onwards and initially there will be no installation charges.
Terming Jio’s entry as a “challenge for all operators”, Shrivastava said competition is good for consumers as it ushers better offerings.
As far as challenge is concerned, we cannot wish it away... I believe BSNL is in a position to match Reliance Jio’s tariffs most successfully, because we are incumbent operator. We are landline and optical fibre operator so our broadband tariff rides on our own network. We don’t have to start procuring, investing and then come out with offerings
BSNL had also announced a national unlimited 3G mobile data plan for Rs 1,099 and doubled the data usage limit in some existing plans, to counter competition in the market. These offerings do look appealing, but with BSNL it really needs to be seen if they can match their word.
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It is worth pointing out that BSNL has been finding it hard to compete with the likes of Airtel and Vodafone. With the launch of Jio, BSNL will have no option but to take the aggressive route, or else their fortunes will never change for good.
(With PTI inputs.)
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