The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. on Monday announced that from December 1, 2010, the pulse rate of STD calls made from its landline number to any other landline number across the country would be increased from 1 minute to 3 minutes, a step aimed at arresting its declining fixed line connections.
BSNL has extended this facility to its landline as well as WLL connections. The fixed line phone subscriber will be able to call any other fixed line networks having less than 10-digit numbers throughout India. Till now it was only in local calls that the pulse rate was 3 minutes, but now this will be extended to all landline connections across India, giving people facility to talk more without paying more.
“Customers will now be able to talk for three minutes in one call unit charge, which varies from 80 paise to Rs.1.20 depending upon the tariff plan. With this, long distance calls from BSNL fixed line to any fixed line customers have now become cheaper than that of mobile,” Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot told The Hindu .
“With distinctive clear voice and no call drops, landline customers can now make long conversations across India without paying any extra STD charges. It is yet another step on our part to provide affordable telecom services to our customers,” he added.
This facility will be automatically available to all fixed line customers of all tariff plans. The customers already availing themselves of dynamic locking facility will continue to make use of the same and can bar STD (Level 0) calls, if they so desire.
