RailWire is the retail broadband arm of RailTel. One of the biggest strengths of the company is its presence in multiple states and several cities. At the same time, one of the biggest weaknesses for the company is the presence of other companies, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The telecom operators of the country are a weakness for RailWire because users can get cheaper plans with essentially the same benefits and even more from them. This signifies a need for RailWire to revamp its offerings, but that’s a discussion for another day. Today we will look at the broadband plans offered by RailWire and compare them with the plans offered by other companies.
RailWire Broadband Plans That Are Just Not Worth It!
Note that RailWire offers different plans in different circles. For now, we will be taking the Chhattisgarh circle for comparison. In Chhattisgarh, RailWire offers three broadband plans with - 20 Mbps, 50 Mbps, and 100 Mbps speeds. These plans cost Rs 599 per month, Rs 799 per month, and Rs 999 per month. Charging Rs 599 per month (exclusive of taxes) from the customers for offering them 20 Mbps speeds is just senseless. There is one thing though, with all the plans, users get truly unlimited data without any fair-usage-policy (FUP) limit. But still, this is no reason why RailWire is charging exorbitant prices for its retail broadband plans. Because, for much less, other companies offer more speeds and also give users more than 3TB of data for the month. For an average user, 3TB data is more or less unlimited only since he/she won’t be able to consume all of it in the first place. Bharti Airtel offers its 100 Mbps plan for Rs 799 per month, which RailWire offers for Rs 999. In fact, for Rs 799, RailWire is offering 50 Mbps speed which is half of what Airtel offers its users. Reliance Jio, on the other hand, offers an even cheaper 100 Mbps plan for Rs 699 per month. For Rs 999, Airtel, Jio, and BSNL all offer internet plans with more than 100 Mbps speeds and over-the-top (OTT) benefits as well. But with RailWire, users only get 100 Mbps speed and no OTT benefits. The only way any rational user would ever go for the plans from RailWire is when he/she doesn’t have any of the aforementioned operators providing services in his/her area. The private internet service providers (ISPs) should understand that if they want any success in the retail business, they will have to price their plans more competitively or just offer more benefits with the currently priced plans.