BSNL Rs 698 unconventional data-only plan now live, check out 

BSNL has now seemingly launched a Rs 698 plan for prepaid users. USP of this plan is that it is valid for 6 months flat. The total data offering, under this tariff, is 200GB.  

The Rs 698 plan

Now, as per a TelecomTalk report, the Rs 698 plan should be live in select telecom circles across India. When we checked out the official BSNL eRecharge portal, the Rs 698 plan was live for the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh telecom circles for now. This could potentially be extended to other telecom circles as well. Also, reportedly, the Rs 698 plan reportedly lets users consume as much daily data they want, meaning there would be no daily limit on data.  

Strangely, gauging BSNL’s Rs 698 plan on the eRecharge portal, it is seemingly evident that there would be no unlimited calls offering at all. No mentions regarding voice calls are made on the official eRecharge portal of BSNL – for now. This is tad-unconventional considering the fact that almost all recharge plans from all leading telcos mandatorily offer free-unlimited voice calls. It seems to be a total data-only offering data for six months at a stretch. 

In related aspects, the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC) levy is now the talk within the Indian telecom circle. Telco Reliance Jio has already started levying 6 paise per minute as IUC on customers making voice calls to other non-Jio numbers. Under immense pressure from users, the telco announced all-in-one plans that also encompasses IUC thereby making voice calls free to users truly.  

Other incumbent telcos such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone have kept IUC levy on customers to zero for now. Even BSNL has not commented about IUC at this juncture. TRAI also recently released a consultation paper seeking industry leaders’ opinions about views on extending the date for implementation of Bill and Keep (BAK) aka zero termination calls regime, for the telecom circles in India. 

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