MTNL reduces rental value to Rs 180

New Delhi, Oct 27 (UNI) Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today slashed its rental for its one India plan' from Rs 299 to Rs 180, which will come into effect from November 1 2006.

Under the scheme the local calls for MTNL network will be at Re 1 for 180 pulse second and Re 1 per minute at 60 pulse second to all other networks.

Subscribers under current MTNL one India plan for landline, WLL will be migrated automatically to the new MTNL one India Plan, subscribers under any other plan may be allowed to mitigrate to MTNL one India plan on their written request without any additional charges, MTNL Chairman and Managing Director R S P Sinha said.

The same rates exist for STD charges within 50 Km besides Re 1 per minute for 60 pulse in seconds, exceeding 50 Km, he said.

For ISD calls in countries like US, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand the call rate is Rs 6.67 per minute at 9 pulse second and for countries such as Europe (except UK), Gulf, Asia, SAARC and Africa the charges are Rs 10 per minute for 6 pulse seconds.

In rest of the countries the charge is at Rs 15 per minute for 4 pulse in second, said Mr Sinha.

Meanwhile, the company today reported a 25.5 dip its net profit at Rs 121.02 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 as compared to Rs 162.53 crore for the corresponding period last year.

The company's total income also declined of Rs 1220.41 crore during the Q2FY06 as against Rs 1276.756 crore in the same period last year.

''We witnessed a loss of about 1.5 lakh customers and believe that tarrifs and churns are the major factors behind the decline'', MTNL Director (Finance) Ms Anita Soni added.

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