With the launch of Reliance Jio’s home broadband services drawing nearer, competitor Bharti Airtel has introduced new fiber-based broadband plans with speeds of up to 300 Mbps.
The FTIH (Fiber-To-the-Home) based plan comes at a monthly rental of Rs. 2199 and offers 1200GB of ultra-high speed data along with unlimited STD and local calling benefits.
This is the first time the company using fiber technology for delivering broadband services to the customer premises.
The plans are not available everywhere, but will be extended to all cities in a phased manner.
This is the second major upgrade to its network in two years. About two years ago, the company introduced a special vectorization technology to increase the bandwidth of its copper plans from 8 Mbps to about 40 Mbps.
“Following the resounding success of our V-Fiber home broadband offering, we are delighted to introduce the new FTIH based plans for customers looking for higher speeds,” said George Mathen, CEO – Homes, Bharti Airtel.
The move comes weeks ahead of Reliance Jio’s rumored launch of its fiber broadband service, JioFiber, with speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps.
Customers opting for the plan also get free subscription to Airtel’s content apps such as Wynk Music and Airtel TV.
“Fixed broadband continues to be the preferred in-home mode for customers to consume online digital content and the average usage per home is growing at a breakneck speed,” Mathen added.
“With this in mind, we will plan to expand our FTTH offerings over the coming days and provide our customers the choice of home broadband plans across a wide range of price points and speeds,” he said
The company has home broadband and fixed line services in 89 cities across India and is the second largest fixed broadband services provider in the country after BSNL.
To keep its customers from being poached from wireless providers like Jio, the company has in recent months introduced features like data rollover (users can carry forward unused data to next bill cycle), Airtel Surprise and myHome Rewards.
The company also has apps such as Wynk Music, which contains 3 million plus songs, and Airtel TV, that offers 350+ LIVE TV channels.