Jio GigaFiber May Now Have a Tough Competition with BSNL Broadband

While Jio GigaFiber is aggressively addressing the issue of last mile connectivity by making acquisitions, and laying fiber optics to commercially launch its ambitious fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services that is expected to offer up to 100Mbps speeds, the leading broadband player in the market is not taking competition lightly. Just days after BSNL Broadband tweaked its Rs 299 offer, the state owned company has now revamped all its broadband plans to offer nearly six times more high speed data.

BSNL Broadband Plans

The revised BSNL Broadband plans are valid to all users in all circles and are as follows: The Rs 675 plan now offers up to 10Mbps till 5GB data per day and up to 2Mbps beyond that limit (this means 150GB data per month as compared to 35GB data that was offered earlier); the Rs 845 plan offers up to 10Mbps till 10GB data per day and up to 2Mbps beyond that limit (Meaning 300GB data per month when compared to 50GB offered earlier); Rs 999 plan offers up to 10Mbps till 15GB per day and up to 2Mbps beyond (Meaning nearly 450GB per month); Rs 1199 plans offers up to 10Mbps till 20GB data per day and up to 2Mbps beyond that (Meaning 600GB data per month); Rs 1495 plan offers up to 10Mbps till 25GB per day and up to 2Mbps beyond that (meaning 750GB data per month compared to 140GB offered earlier); Rs 1745 plan offers up to 16Mbps till 30GB per day and up to 2Mbps beyond that limit (Meaning a whopping 900GB data per month compared to 140GB per month that was offered earlier); and the most premium plan of all, the Rs 2295 plan offers up to 24Mbps till 35GB per day and up to 2Mbps beyond that limit.

BSNL Broadband recently also revised its Rs 299 plan, which now offers 1.5GB per day at a download speed of 8Mbps. The plan also offers unlimited voice calls between 10:30pm to 6am to any network within the country including all Sundays, and 24 hrs unlimited free calling, Local and STD, within India on any BSNL network. In case customers exceed the FUP limit, they will have to access data at speeds of up to 1Mbps. To avail this offer, users have the option to pay an annual payment of Rs 3289 as well. However, consumers have to pay a onetime security deposit of Rs 500 and the minimum hire period will be of one month.

Jio GigaFiber Launch and Status

The fiber optics for the Jio GigaFiber are being laid as of now and the service is apparently in its beta testing stage, so the commercial launch may most likely happen in the first half of 2019. The preview offer of Jio GigaFiber is, however, live as of now and 100GB monthly data at 100Mbps for the first three months from the date a consumer registers for the service is being offered for free. Consumers can also get 40GB additional data after 100GB gets exhausted, the recharge for which can be done via MyJio App and the company’s official website. Users need to submit a refundable security deposit of Rs 4500.

Although there is no official confirmation from Reliance Jio on the Jio GigaFiber plans, some reports state that Jio GigaFiber plans will start at Rs 500 and go up to Rs 1500, and the service will be offered at speeds of up to 50Mbps to nearly 100Mbps. However, Jio Care has confirmed that Jio GigaFiber would empower users with ultra high speed Internet up to 100Mbps along with a host of online content at the most competitive prices.

Jio GigaFiber and BSNL Broadband

BSNL Broadband is currently the leading player in the broadband market in India, with over 9.30 million users. Nonetheless, even before its complete launch, Jio Gigafiber has recently topped the Netflix Internet Service Providers (ISPs) speed Index list for the second time in a row with an average playback rate of 3.48 Mbps, whereas BSNL Broadband stood at the 13^th position with a playback rate of 2.13. However, Netflix ISP Speed Index is a measure of prime time Netflix performance on particular ISPs around the globe, and not a measure of overall performance for other services/data that may travel across the specific ISP network.

But one could say that even though Jio GigaFiber promises the services one dreams of, it would be interesting to see how they take on established players like BSNL Broadband who are constantly tweaking their plans to retain their consumer base.