Close on the heels of mobile operators slashing their STD rates, State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is giving final touches to its mobile and fixed phone STD rates that is expected to match private cellular companies.
"We will announce the new rates within the next 48 hours," a top BSNL official said.
The BSNL rates are likely to be passed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in the next two days, he said.
The fresh round of price war was triggered after major mobile operators last week announced a cut in their STD rates from the peak rate Rs 9 a minute to a flat cell to cell Rs 2.99 a minute.
But BSNL says that the actual rate for such a call from mobile to mobile is much higher than what is being stipulated by the private players.
It argues that the Rs 2.99 per minute will also include another Rs 2 as the average outgoing airtime rate for that minute. "This would mean that the cost would be Rs 4.99," the BSNL official said.
UNI
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