Chennai: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) launched their new broadband services on the same day. Both the companies have the government as the major shareholder. And both may be merged this year. But their tariff plans and brand names are quite different. While BSNL has branded its broadband as Dataone, MTNL has named it Triband.

Their offerings are so different that just one can be used for a comparative study. If one takes their per MB rate of Re1 as the common denominator, it is clear BSNL is more purse friendly.

Feature	BSNL Business 1200	MTNL DSL 1199
Bandwidth	256kbps	256kbps
Monthly Charges	Rs1,200	Rs1,199
Annual Charges	Rs12,000	Rs12,900
Download	4.00GB	1.25GB
Additional downloads	Rs2.00 per MB	Rs1.20 per MB
Free e-mail ID	1	2
Space per email ID	5 MB	4MB

BSNL is even more subscriber-friendly when one compares its rates with private players like Tata Indicom:

Feature	BSNL Home 500	Tata Indicom DSL 250
Bandwidth	256kbps	up to 512kbps
Monthly Charges	Rs500	Rs500
Modem Rent	Rs100	nil
Download and Upload	1GB	250MB
Installation Charges	Rs500	Rs2,500
Modem Deposit	Rs500	nil
Security Deposit	nil	Rs1,000