Ranchi, July 21: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to change the billing pattern and payment schedule for the subscribers of its landline connections, starting with Ranchi, the first telecom district in Jharkhand where the changes have come into force.

Now, a subscriber will need to pay his telephone bills on a monthly basis as against once every two months. Secondly, the call charges will be calculated per second instead of calculating per metered call unit.

Also, the bill dates and payment schedule will be common for all subscribers, irrespective of the series and the telephone exchange to which their numbers belong.

Until now, the payment cycle was different for different number series, such as January for 255 series, February for 240 series, March for 228 series and so on.

A telecom official said that BSNL’s new billing system toes the line followed by the mobile telephone service providers.

“The subscribers also need to record their new customer or subscriber identity number, which has been allotted afresh as part of the all India ‘integrated billing system,’” said BSNL deputy general manager Sanjay Kumar.

The billing for subscribers of BSNL landline connections in the state capital is being done in Calcutta.