BSNL lowers rentals for One India plan

In a bid to make One-India tariff plan more attractive, state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd today lowered its rental for fixed line subscribers to Rs 225 a month from Rs 299. The company has also offered 25 free calls for those availing the plan, which offers subscribers a flat rate of Re One per minute for STD telephone calls made to any part of the country.

The One India tariff plan announced earlier does not offer any free calls to subscribers, which made it an expensive option compared to other BSNL packages. For instance, the regular plan with a monthly rental of Rs 180 offers 30 free calls. BSNL Director (Commercial) Mr G S Grover announced the new tariffs on the sidelines of a meeting of the GSM Association in the presence of Communication and IT Minister Mr Dayanidhi Maran. One India plan was planned by Mr Maran to make long distance calls affordable. However due to its higher rentals and zero free calls, the scheme was not finding too many takers.

The local call rates under the One India would continue to be Rs 1 for a three-minute call.

BSNL said all other existing tariff plans would continue to be in operation including the lower rentals scheme in rural areas and 'OneIndia' tariff plan would be optional.

Under the new tariff package for BSNL's landine users, the local call charges will be Rs 1 for three minutes within BSNL network while calls to other networks both landline and mobile will be Rs 1 per minute within a state.

Private operators like Airtel are also offering One India plans and are expected to announce tariff revisions to match up with BSNL.

Taken from Business Line

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