BSNL phone connection for Re 1

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has offered a heavy discount on lowering the registration charges on a basic telephone from the existing Rs 1,000 to just Re 1.

BSNL has introduced four different schemes to increase its customer base in the cellular and fixed line telephony. 

In the basic telephony segment, BSNL announced that anybody can register a basic phone connection by paying only Re 1. BSNL will also offer a 50-hour Internet card with each scheme offered in this area. This scheme is valid from November 22 till December 15, 2004.

Under the cellular segment, BSNL has announced discounts on pre-paid recharge coupons, wherein a subscriber would get four recharge coupons at the cost of three. For the post-paid connections, activation charges have been waived off completely. The discounts are valid for a period between 23-70 days or from October 22 to December 31.

The corporation has also announced a waiver of installation charges of Rs 600 on new basic phone connections. BSNL would spend up to Rs 50 crore towards these festive offers. 

In its bid to increase Internet penetration for broadband, BSNL announced reduction in access rates by up to 60%, besides lowering the rental for ISDN lines to Rs 400 a month and for an ISDN PRI connection to Rs 1,750 a month from Rs 5,000. “We are also lowering the deposit money from the existing Rs 60,000 to just Rs 10,000,” BSNL CMD, AK Sinha added.

BSNL also announced free virtual calling cards of different denominations for subscribers paying their bills regularly. “We have different slabs under this scheme. We would give free ITC cards of Rs 200, free to customers paying bills between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000. This can go upto free ITC card value of Rs 2,000 for a bill amount exceeding Rs 25,000,” Sinha explained.

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