Ranchi, Dec. 3: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has not lost hopes of reaping profit.

After failing to find subscribers for wireless in local loop (WiLL) service, BSNL, Ranchi is looking at ways to make the scheme, Tarang, attractive for recovering the huge investment.

The new packaging is expected to give the scheme a boost and BSNL a good gain.

The government-owned telecom agency is planning to provide free calls of equivalent amount of monthly rentals to woo subscribers, especially the low economy group, which wants phone for conversation and not for other facilities like short message service (SMS) or multimedia messaging service (MMS).

Sources in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said circle chief general managers have been given powers to make changes in the tariff.

Ranchi telecom forwarded a proposal to provide free calls of Rs 200 per month against the monthly rental of the same amount, BSNL sources said.

?Once this is done, we will target an entirely different segment that does not go for features like SMS and MMS, but only for conversation while being mobile within the city limits,? a senior BSNL official said.

Tarang, which charges Rs 120 for a three-minute call against 60 second pulse of other operators for Rs 1.25, is expected to pick up after the new scheme is launched. The BSNL expects the scheme will help at least recover the heavy investment in installing the costly limited mobile exchange.

The exchange worth crores of rupees has capacity for 5,000 connections, but has less than 300 subscribers.

This is against a wait list of 52,000 in Ranchi for BSNL excel mobile service.

?With only voice and slow internet services, Tarang has not got a good response. The present tariff of Tarang does not have any provision for free calls. This gives Reliance India Mobile an edge as it has schemes where a subscriber has free-call service,? an official said.

A call from one Tarang scheme to another has a pulse rate of 180 seconds, Tarang to landline phone is 90 seconds and Tarang to BSNL mobile is 60 seconds.

But a call to mobile phones of other operators has a pulse of only 45 seconds. Once the new scheme is launched, it will become the best bargain as compared to the other service providers and subscribers are expected increase, officials said.