New Delhi, July 24 :
New Delhi, July 24:
In a move that may signal trouble for small players in the internet telephony business, the state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) which jumped into the race today, announced its entry with calls to the US and the UK priced at just Rs 4.80 per minute.
The service will be available from personal computer (PC)-to-phone for 168 countries under the brand name 'Bol-Anmol'.
Tariffs for the US, UK, Canada, Singapore and Australia have been fixed at Rs 4.80 per minute from PC-to-phone in these countries.
Internet telephony was permitted from April 1 and a clutch of private operators like Caltiger and Net4India immediately launched their services. Dial2Net's Phonewala.com charges Rs 4.95 per minute for calls to the US while Caltiger charges Rs 3.
The new service will benefit only PC holders, but will allow them to make a call to a phone at the terminating end.
Sharma said tariffs for other destinations will be different, adding that the tariff was in addition to internet usage tariff and local telephony charges.
MTNL, which provides fixed line telephony services in Delhi and Mumbai will be servicing these two metros from today. It has applied for a licence to service the rest of the country through its 100 per cent subsidiary Millennium Telecom. Millennium Telecom will be a 'Category A' internet service provider (ISP).
'We hope to get the licence within a month and we will start offering services soon thereafter,' said Sharma.