BSNL fresh bookings heat up Gujarat cell war

New plans opened after a year

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has announced the issuing of post-paid CellOne connection and pre-paid Excel cards again as booking opened from March after almost a year.

Taking on private cell players yet again, BSNL has offered competitive roaming cellular tariffs for Excel and CellOne services in Gujarat.

The BSNL roaming charges for outgoing calls is Rs 1.50 for STD and cell-to-cell calls whereas the other GSM operators provide the same service at Rs 3.75 for cell-to-cell and Rs 4.24 for STD calls. In fact. BSNL roaming charges do not increase with the distance compared with private mobile operators who charge more with an increase of distance.

BSNL is charging Rs two for incoming call while roaming compared with other cellular operators who charge Rs 5.10 for incoming calls on roaming. Apart from lower tariff rates, BSNL pulse rate is 15 second compared with Hutch, Airtel and Idea's 60 second pulse rate.

"BSNL has wide network coverage which no private operators can match," said B K Karecha, ITS, general manager (Dev. & NS), BSNL, Gujarat Telecom Circle.

Karecha further said that BSNL gave connectivity to 25 zila, 167 talukas and 225 cites of Gujarat. Apart from these, BSNL subscribers always remain connected across India including Diu, Daman and in remote parts of the country.

BSNL can take on any private telecom operators as we reach to Andaman and Nicobar Islands where mobile subscribers remain connected through BSNL. No private cellular operator works in Andaman and Nicobar islands, added Karecha.

The company has offered four other packages to its fixed-line subscribers - BSNL Economy (150 free calls with minimum Rs 350 monthly charges), BSNL Special (600 free calls with minimum Rs 750 monthly charge), BSNL Super (1,800 free calls with minimum Rs 1,650 monthly rental) and BSNL General package (with Rs 250 monthly rental and 30 free calls).

In addition, as per the instructions of Trai, it is also offering Trai's Standard package for Rs 280 monthly rental. BSNL has also introduced some value-added services free of cost.

The businessmen and employed with high use of phones can save Rs 500 onwards by opting for the BSNL Super plan that offers 1,800 free calls with minimum monthly commitment of Rs 1,650 and additional calls for Rs 1 each. These include caller line identification (CLI) and call waiting/ forwarding/ holding facility. The 95 facility has been extended above 200 km within the circle.