Call connect

New Delhi, Jan. 23: The stage appears set for another round of price war in telecom tariffs with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today unveiling a scheme for its post-paid mobile phone users. The new plan offers STD at the rate of Re 1 and local calls at 60 paise per minute.

The scheme is for post-paid mobile service for a monthly fixed charge of Rs 999 bundling with a Cellone Axia A108 handset where customers will get free calls worth Rs 700.

Users, however, will have to pay a registration charge of Rs 500 and a one-time activation fee of Rs 200.

Under the plan, charges for local calls to mobile and fixed phones within BSNL’s own network will be 60 paise per minute, while Re 1 per minute will be charged for calls made to other networks for a 15 second pulse rate.

STD calls to mobile and fixed phones within its own network will be charged at the rate of Re 1 per minute while for calls made to other networks will be charged at Rs 1.60 per minute.

BSNL will allow migration to the new plan from existing plans and has waived activation charge for a period of three months.

On Sunday, Reliance Infocomm offered free outgoing calls worth Rs 2,000 on some of its new handsets. Under the scheme, on buying a handset worth Rs 2,700 a subscriber will get Rs 2,000 worth talktime for outgoing calls along with 2,000 local SMSs free. However, both these facilities have to be used within nine months and there should be a minimum recharge of Rs 149 after two months from the date of subscription.

This is the third time in the last three weeks that Reliance has announced a new tariff plan. Earlier announcements included outstation calls for Re 1 and flexible tariffs on fixed-wireless phones.

The tariffs will be 99 paise a minute for a local call from Reliance to Reliance phones and Rs 1.79 from Reliance to any other mobile. The STD rate has been fixed at Rs 1.79 from Reliance to Reliance anywhere in the country and Rs 2.49 from Reliance to other phones.

Prior to this, Reliance Infocomm had introduced a recharge voucher offering its pre-paid cellular customers a 15 paise-per-minute for calls to Reliance India mobile phones within the circle. Calls to Reliance fixed-phones will cost 40 paise under the new plan.