Jio GigaFiber, Airtel VFiber, BSNL? Your Choice for Faster Internet?
Well, the age of data war is nearly upon us as telecom providers are on the verge of fighting fire with fire as they offer cheaper and reliable offers to attract customers. Among the many internet providers in India, Reliance Jio, Airtel and BSNL are by far one of the most popular choices for consumers. Reliance Jio being a new contender has definitely taken the internet world by storm by providing extremely low priced plans with great data benefits. In fact, One could argue that Reliance Jio might have been the cause for more affordable internet tariffs across all providers in India.
That being said, Reliance Jio recently launched its GigaFiber Plans and subscriptions and it has definitely become a huge game changer for home internet connections. As the reach of Jio GigaFiber reaches more and more regions, Let’s see how it fares against some of the other popular connections like Airtel’s VFiber and BSNL’s Broadband connections
Jio GigaFiber
Reliance Jio will be installing a Fiber to the Home(FTTH) broadband service which is termed the Jio GigaFiber, In which an optical Fiber cable is brought directly to your house instead of traditional coaxial cable or telephone line. The advantage of using optical fiber cables is that they can carry data at much higher speeds and have a high bandwidth. This will allow customers to have high-speed internet much faster than broadband connections. However, the drawback of such connections in the past was their higher installation costs. Thanks to advancements in technology, they have become relatively cheaper than in the past to install and Jio is making sure to use that to their advantage.
Jio’s technology will not only bring faster internet connectivity but will also continue to adapt to the latest technology .this means you wouldn’t need to upgrade your fiber network post installation as Jio says the company will “upgrade them with the latest technology that creates the electronic light pulses and not by replacing the fiber cables”. Of course, JIO is not just providing internet through their GigaFibers. Jio is also planning to include other services like telephone calling and TV services through the same optical fiber connection. This means that you could essentially have a landline phone, Highspeed internet and cable TV service all through a single cable instead of having to install the 3 separately and these services will not slow down your internet.
These are definitely a lot of great services which Jio is going to provide, But we are mainly focusing on internet speeds and pricing. So, how is that going you ask?
For installing Jio, As this is a preview offer, currently there are no installation charges levied but there is a refundable security deposit of Rs.4,500 taken for the ONT device (GigaHub Home Gateway). This amount needs to be paid through Debit card, Credit Card, Jio Money or Pay TM. The current offer is JioGigaFiber preview offer, which gives you ultra high-speed internet up to 100Mbps for 90 days along with a monthly data quota of 100 GB and complimentary access to a host of Jio’s premium apps. In case, you consume 100 GB of your data quota within a month you can continue to enjoy our high-speed internet services by performing a complementary data top-up of 40 GB via MyJio App or through Jio.com.
So you get 100 GB a month for 3 months (approximately) at 100Mbps speed. To put the speed in contrast, you could download a movie of 1GB size in just under 3 minutes. So if you download a lot, be sure to keep an eye on your data limit as you can use it all up in just a few hours if you aren’t careful
VFiber- Airtel
The VFiber, is Airtels take on providing high-speed internet to homes through Optical fibers. Airtel claims to use a unique combination of Vectorization – Europe’s No.1 fixed broadband technology and fiber allow you to enjoy broadband internet speeds of up to 100 Mbps. Airtel has a wide range of plans with different data limits and speed limits. SO not all plans are going to give you 100Mbps speeds. The base plan of 499 Rs offers 8Mbps of speed with a data limit of 100GB. These rates may differ from city to city so be sure to check before subscribing to them. 100 Mbps plans start at 999Rs and have a data limit of 250GB per month. This plan also gives you a free Netflix subscription and an amazon prime subscription as an added bonus and also supports data roll over. We’ll discuss these plans in detail later.
All in all, Airtel is definitely a great contender against Jio and offers a lot of useful bonus offers.
BSNL FTTH
BSNL has long been providing FTTH plans. However, not many of us were aware of it. Most people, preferred broadband connection then, But now, when data speeds are everything, BSNL also has a few tricks up their sleeves as they offer FTTH plans.
BSNL provides Unlimited Broadband 299 plan that costs 299Rs
(Charges may vary with the region) and offers 8 Mbps up to 1.5 GB/Day, then 1 Mbps unlimited data. As an added perk, they also offer Unlimited Free Calls to All India BSNL Network,24 Hrs Free Calls on All Sundays
Unlimited FREE Night (10.30pm to 6 am) Calls to Any Network etc bundled with this same plan.
But enough about broadband, Their FTTH plan, Fibro Combo ULD 777 offers 50 Mbps speed for up to 500 GB, then unlimited data usage at 2 Mbps. WIth an added perk of 24×7 Unlimited Free Calls to Any Network, BSNL is also a great choice to consider for high-speed internet. BSNL also offers flexible plans with varying speeds and data caps for a variety of price ranges so you can choose the best plan based on your monthly usage. Their FTTH plans range from as low as 777 Rs per month all the way up to as high as 16999Rs which offers 100 Mbps up to 3500 GB ( approximately 3.5 TB), then 10 Mbps, one free static IP, and 24 Hrs Unlimited FREE Call to Any Network.
BSNL might be the best choice for plans with a lot of flexibility, but the main disadvantage is that the FTTH plans are not available everywhere and you would need to check with your local BSNL network provider to find out if its available in your area.
Conclusion
All three are exceptional Internet Service providers and offer a great range of plans. The best plan depends on the type of person you are. If you have relatively low data usage but want very fast internet at affordable rates, then you might want to try out Jio GigaFiber. If you use a lot of data monthly and download or stream a lot, then Airtel or BSNL plans might be the best choice for you. Either way all the plans offered are generally great and each provider has interesting offers of their own. Only time will tell who among them will come out on top.
