I have been on many popular telecom networks such as aircel, uninor, docomo, reliance, bsnl, vodafone, airtel and idea. but the service provided by BSNL and the network coverage they provide is the worst experienced by me. I want to describe my experience by some points:
PRO’s
1. Customer service was also not so much responsive. They kept you waiting for long, but now the service has improved a bit, so this will be a plus on BSNL’s side.
2. Roaming is free, no extra cost is deducted on recieving any call while in roaming, this saves a lot of money.
CON’s
1. No network coverage in popular areas in big cities like Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow and hardly any service in the heart of India, Delhi. Even in villages, as they challenge other network companies, there is no coverage in villages, they don’t even have mobile towers in villages, I can easily find coverage of vodafone and idea there.
2. Network outage is the biggest issue that I am facing these days, most of the time, the network show "no network" from the BSNL sim, usually my friends end up saying my phone always remain unreachable.
3. The validity recharge which is an extra money we had to pay every six months. it is a small amount, I know, but why should we pay something that we don’t need to or we shouldn’t.
Conclusion:
I am a BSNL user only because this is an All Indian Company and I have also heard that the services have been marginally improved from the last year. I am eagerly waiting for the improvements but these con’s are needed to be solved. I will continue using it but will not recommend to anyone unless the problems are solved.