Airtel Broadband vs BSNL Broadband
BSNL, which stands for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, is a state owned Communications Company whereas Airtel is a private company. Both are providing both landline as well as mobile services along with broadband services throughout India. Their plans for internet services, especially those with unlimited download have nearly same tariffs but there is a difference in the quality of services provided which will be talked about in this article.
It is not proper to generalize about the quality of services but I can talk with authority as I have experienced the services of both the companies. It is true that when selling a connection, employees of both BSNL and Airtel paint a very rosy picture but the reality dawns only after the connection has been installed. The unlimited plan of Airtel costs 799 Rupees whereas BSNL is providing it for Rupees 750. You have to pay the taxes applicable also. Both the plans provide same bandwidth of 256 Kbps but for Airtel, it increases to 1 Mbps during nighttime. Both Airtel and BSNL are giving away free talk value of Rupees 100 on usage of the landline number that they provide along with the connection. BSNL provides two email ID’s for free with a storage space of 5MB that are useless in any case.
If you want higher speeds of data transfer, both Airtel and BSNL have more expensive plans. Airtel has Explore 1099 and Turbo 1299 while BSNL has Home UL 1350. Turbo 1299 has additional benefits of Rupees 499 as it provides Rupees 100 of talk value, antivirus of value Rupees 100, speed on demand worth Rupees 100 and unlimited gaming at Rupees 199. In comparison, BSNL has nothing of note to offer its subscribers in its Home UL 1350.
If you are satisfied with 256 Kbps speeds, there is nothing much to choose between the two service providers, but if you want higher speeds of 512 Kbps, it is better to go with Airtel for additional benefits. However, if you happen to be a government employee, you stand to get a discount of 20% on the services of BSNL which is an attractive feature.
When we compare the customer services, Airtel is 100 times better than BSNL. You make a complaint and you are sure to get it rectified within hours in case of Airtel whereas you may go without broadband for days at stretch if there is any snag in case of BSNL. So if you have urgent work to do, you may repent you chose BSNL because of any sentimental value.
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In brief: BSNL Broadband vs Airtel Broadband • Though there is nothing much to choose between the unlimited plans of Airtel and BSNL at speeds of 256 Kbps, you get a lot of additional benefits from Airtel in case you need higher speeds of 512 Kbps which are absent in case of BSNL. • As far as customer support is concerned, Airtel is far ahead of BSNL which is reflected in the growing number of Airtel connections in the country • BSNL is providing a 20% discount to government employees, which is attractive for some people.
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