Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to unveil cheaper tariff plans by the end of this year and launch full-fledged 4G services by March 2016 to take on private players including Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reports ET, (Economic Times).

"We will launch competitive tariff plans to match Reliance Jio and other private telecom service providers' pricing, be it 4G or 3G, by the end of this year," BSNL chairman-cum-managing director Anupam Shrivastava told ET.

BSNL will close watch Jio, which has announced launch of 4G services by the end of the year, and it will use airwaves in 2500 MHz band to launch competitively priced 4G services at select locations before the end of current fiscal, Shrivastava said.

Jio, in addition to pan-India BWA spectrum in 2300 MHz band, has acquired airwaves in 800MHz and 1800MHz in the recently-concluded auctions. Ambani had earlier announced the company will launch services around December at tariffs ranging from Rs 300 to Rs 500 per month.

Shrivastava further said, "We are taking Wi-Fi route for our 4G services and also talking to telecom operators for spectrum sharing."

Wi-Fi technology connects through 2G or 3G network and acts as a 4G hotspot to deliver highspeed data services to consumers.

"We have spectrum in 2.5 GHz across 15 licensed service areas in the country and we are planning to launch 4G services by the end of the current fiscal," the BSNL top executive said.

BSNL's discussions with Russia's MTS India arm, which has spectrum in 800 MHz band, have however not materialised, Shrivastava said.

BSNL is also evaluating device-bundling options for 4G services and is currently in talks with various device manufacturers for consumer-friendly schemes. "We compete with each other and share infrastructure with Reliance Jio as well. In today's scenario, it should not be seen as a competition as the objective is to serve consumers," Shrivastava said.

ET, (The Economic Times, India's largest Economic daily)