BSNL joins tariff war, cuts monthly rentals by 28%

India's largest telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today responded to tariff cuts by private players by announcing a 28 per cent reduction in monthly rentals for fixed lines and a pre-paid scheme with life-long validity for its mobile subscribers.

The public sector company will cut its monthly rental to Rs 180 from the existing Rs 250 in urban areas and Rs 210 in rural areas from January 1, 2006 for fixed lines. The move would result in a Rs 600-crore revenue loss for BSNL, company executives said.

BSNL has also joined the bandwagon to offer pre-paid cards for mobile phones with a life-long validity, by launching its Rs 949 scheme, which also includes a pre-loaded talk-time of Rs 99.

Local call rates for the new pre-paid card will be Rs 1.60 per minute within the BSNL network and Rs 2 per minute for other networks. For domestic long-distance calls, the tariff wou be Rs 2.40 a minute within the BSNL network and Rs 3 per minute for other networks, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director AK Sinha told reporters.

Tata Teleservices, the first operator to trigger the validity war for the pre-paid segment with its highly successful two-year scheme today announced that the scheme, would be extended to allow subscribers to receive incoming calls free for life.

Tata Teleservices was left with no option, but launch the life-time validity scheme as all cellular operators came out with similar offers to counter its two-year validity scheme.

Meanwhile, Airtel announced festive international long-distance rates at Rs 7.99 per for calls to countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The reduced rates would be valid for all calls made from the home network between January 1, 2006 and January 7, 2006, a company release said.

Hutch, too, announced today yet another pre-paid recharge card of Rs 2,000, giving full talk-time to its subscribers with a validity of one year.