Government owned telecom operator BSNL has confirmed its partnership with domestic smartphone makers Lava and Micromax. Under this collaboration, the companies will build low-cost devices that will offer bundled tariff plans of BSNL. However, the operator did not announce any special tariff plans relating to the collaboration.
According to reports, BSNL has tied-up with Micromax Informatics and Lava International to build low-cost handsets that will come with BSNL SIMs and its bundled offers. This partnership will help the state-run operator to increase its subscriber base.
“BSNL has tied up with Micromax and Lava to provide instruments to BSNL customers at low cost. We are coming out with bundled offers on the handsets manufactured by Micromax and Lava with BSNL SIMs…the cost details are being worked out,” said BSNL’s Hyderabad Telecom District Principal General Manager K Ramchand.
Recently, telecom operators such as Vodafone and Aircel have partnered with phone makers such as Lava and Intex to offer bundled tariff plans with more data and voice benefits to the customers. And now, the state-run telco BSNL has also joined the race in a bid to counter Reliance Jio.
BSNL had recently launched a tariff plan of Rs. 429 on a pan-India basis, which is in-line with other telecom operator’s plans such as Reliance Jio’s Rs. 399 plan and Airtel’s Rs. 399 Plan. This Rs. 429 plan gives 1GB 3G data per day and unlimited voice calls. There is also a smaller recharge worth Rs 249 that offers 1GB per day but at a validity of 28 days.
It is to be mentioned that state-owned BSNL, which is still operating on 2G and 3G spectrums, is planning to soon launch its 4G services with VoLTE support. To recall, VoLTE service is currently offered by Jio and Airtel recently launched it in Mumbai. BSNL is also working on 5G ready technology to prepare for future competition.
