Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will compete with Reliance Jio tariff-by-tariff, the state-run telecom company's chairman and managing director, Anupam Shrivastava, said on Tuesday. The company has decided to take an aggressive stand in its plans for the future, and not shy away from the competition, PTI reported.
Shrivastava said, "It is a question of survival in the market... there is no other way but to match Jio, tariff by tariff. If the tariff of Jio is aggressive, the tariff of BSNL and of all other operators is also going to be aggressive." BSNL launched a promotional unlimited broadband plan at the rate of less than Re 1 per GB, a day after Reliance made their new initiative public.
"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 operators. We are landline and optical fibre operators so our broadband tariff rides on our own network... We do not have to start procuring, investing and then come out with offerings," he said, adding that BSNL might consider providing free voice calls for subscribers, a key selling point of Reliance Jio. Shrivastava said the company will monitor market reactions for the next two or three months and act accordingly.
The company has already introduced free voice calls for subscribers between 9 pm and 7 am. It has also done away with charges for calls made to any mobile or landline number on Sundays.
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