The Hindu Business Line : MTNL extends `One India' plan to entire country

Wider coverage
No free calls; subscriber has to make a fresh application to migrate to the new tariff
Calls to MTNL/BSNL subscriber will be charged at Re 1 for 3 minutes
Calls to private operators' subscriber will be at Re 1/per minute

MR R.S.P. SINHA, Chairman and Managing Director, MTNL, addressing a press conference in the Capital on Friday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Oct. 27

Even as its profits plummeted 25 per cent during the quarter ended September 30, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Friday announced STD tariffs of Re 1 per minute for calls made to any part of the country under the One India plan.

Earlier, MTNL had introduced One India tariffs for calls between Delhi and Mumbai only. The move comes after a similar tariff cut by the other state-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.

However, unlike the BSNL tariff plan, MTNL is not offering any free calls under the scheme. While BSNL had made the plan available for all its subscribers having the Rs 180 monthly rental plan, MTNL subscribers will have to apply separately to avail themselves of the new tariff.

Calls to other networks

Under the MTNL One India plan, subscribers making local calls to another MTNL or BSNL subscriber will be able to make local calls at Re 1 for a three minute call compared to Rs 1.20 for a three minute call at present. However, local calls to a private operators' subscriber has got dearer under this scheme at Re 1 per minute compared to Re 1.20 for three minutes under the exiting schemes.

Inter-circle STD calls to private operators' network will be available for Re 1 per minute. The new tariffs will be applicable from November 1. International long distance calls to the US, UK, Canada and South East Asian countries will be available for Rs 6.6 per minute.

Results

Meanwhile, the board of directors of MTNL on Friday took on record the unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended on September 30.

MTNL has posted a net profit of Rs 121 crore as compared to Rs 162.5 crore during the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

The company's income from services dipped to Rs 1,220 crore during the second quarter of 2006-07 as compared to Rs 1,276 crore during the corresponding quarter of previous year.

Income from mobile services went up from Rs 128 crore to Rs 182 crore, which is a 42.02 per cent increase.

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