Days after Reliance Jio launched its wired broadband services with speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, incumbent Bharti Airtel has matched the speed at the highest end and topped it with more data by announcing a new offer on Wednesday.
The Airtel Xstream Fibre package offers 1Gbps speed for Rs 3,999/month, matching a similar plan by Jio at the same monthly rate. But whereas Jio provides a monthly data of 2,500 GB in its Platinum pack, Bharti is offering 3,500 GB data in its pack. This means once the 2,500/3,500 GB data limit is exhausted before the month/ billing cycle, the speed limit is reset at lower levels under what is called fair usage policy (FUP).
Other benefits that Airtel is offering is a three-month Netflix subscription, one-year Amazon Prime membership and access to premium content from ZEE5 and Airtel Xstream app.
At the moment, Jio does not have offerings like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
As reported earlier, Jio’s monthly tariffs start from Rs 699 and goes up to Rs 8,499 with speed limits ranging between 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. In comparison, Bharti’s tariffs started from Rs 799 per month and went up to Rs 1,999 with speed limits ranging between 40 Mbps to 300 Mbps, but now with this new plan even it has scaled the 1 Gbps speed level.
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The higher monthly packs like the Rs 3,999 one is generally used by small businesses and enterprises and Bharti by launching the new high speed pack is trying to ensure that its clientele in this segment remains with it.
“Starting Wednesday, Airtel Xstream Fibre is available to homes, SOHO (Small Office Home Office) and small commercial establishments in Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Indore, Jaipur and Ahmedabad,” the company said in a statement. In the coming months, Airtel Xstream Fibre will be rolled out in more markets, the statement added.
The wired broadband market isn’t big enough as it has a total user base of just 18.45 million, of which the largest share is of BSNL’s at 9.09 million followed by Bharti Airtel, which has 2.39 million subscribers. The other players are very small. The tariffs unveiled by Jio on September 5 are somewhat lower than that of Bharti’s but not in the range where it can disrupt the market in a big way.
