BSNL launches Rs777 broadband plan; 78,300 employees opt for VRS
04 Dec 2019
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Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which has emerged leaner, after 78,300 employees, or more than half of the company's total manpower, opted for voluntary retirement, has re-launched its Rs777 broadband plan that offers 500GB CUL plan in India.
The popular plan comes with some attractive benefits, including 500GB of data at 50Mbps and unlimited calling. However, the Rs777 broadband plan is only available for new BSNL broadband users and that too for a limited period.
The plan offers reduced speed after FUP limit is exhausted
The Rs777 broadband plan offers 500GB of monthly data at 50Mbps speed. Once the FUP limit (500GB) is exhausted, the speed is reduced to 2Mbps. Additionally, subscribers also get unlimited calling benefit to all networks in India.
Unlike some of the rival plans, this broadband pack doesn't offer any free subscription to OTT services like Hotstar, Netflix, or Amazon Prime Video.
After 6-months, subscribers will be migrated to a new plan.
According to the state-run telco, the Rs777 broadband plan is only available for new users, and it will be valid for six months. Once the subscription period expires, subscribers will be migrated to BSNL's 600GB CUL plan which costs Rs999/month.
The Rs999 plan offers more data and higher speed than the Rs799 pack.
The premium plan provides 600GB of monthly data at 80Mbps of speed along with unlimited voice calling across the country.
After the monthly data quota expires, the internet can be accessed only at a reduced speed of 2Mbps.
Last month, BSNL also introduced triple play plans in some cities to bundle broadband, landline, and cable TV services in one pack. In Visakhapatnam, the state-run telco has partnered with Sri Devi Television (SDV) to introduce as many as 10 triple play plans.
Meanwhile, nearly 92,700 employees of BSNL and MTNL have opted for voluntary retirement, which is expected to save about Rs 8,800 crore annually in salary bills for the debt-laden telecom companies. Top officials of both state-run firms have said that the numbers have exceeded the target set for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), which closed on Tuesday.
In the case of BSNL, over 78,300 employees opted for voluntary retirement which is over half of the company's total manpower. While as many as 14,378 employees of MTNL, accounting for 76 per cent of the total strength, opted for VRS.
BSNL estimates that the reduction in employees strength will help the company reduce the wage bill by about 50 per cent to Rs 7,000 annually from Rs 14,000 crore at present, he said.
MTNL chairman and managing director Sunil Kumar said this will reduce our annual salary bill from Rs 2,272 crore to Rs 500 crore. Now we are left with 4,430 employees which is sufficient to run our business," Kumar said.
Wages bill has been one of the prime reasons for both debt-ridden public sector units running in to loss. BSNL had posted a loss of Rs 14,904 crore and MTNL Rs3,398 crore in 2018-19.
Total debt on both the companies stood at Rs 40,000 crore, of which half of the liability is on MTNL alone which operates in Delhi and Mumbai.
In case of BSNL, employee cost was around 75 per cent of the total revenue that company earned and 87 per cent at the MTNL that reduced ability of the PSUs to generate cash flows and invest in business expansion.
The government in October announced a revival package of Rs 68,751 crore for debt-ridden BSNL and MTNL which included Rs 17,169 crore on account of ex-gratia on VRS and Rs12,768 crore due to preponement of pensionary benefits spread over a period of 10 years through budgetary allocation for VRS.
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