BSNL board discusses OneIndia plan

Deliberations went on late into the night, but a full board of state-owned telecom company BSNL failed to deliver OneIndia to the Ministry o...

Deliberations went on late into the night, but a full board of state-owned telecom company BSNL failed to deliver OneIndia to the Ministry of Communications.

A day before the January 26 deadline for OneIndia, Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran was in Chennai, but there still are hopes that the scheme will be launched.

The onus of this programme now rests on BSNL’s shoulders, being the largest telecom operator with 15 million rural subscribers. It is mulling several options to cut tariffs without hurting subscribers. ‘‘Whatever it launches must be ‘considered’ OneIndia,’’ sources said.

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BSNL’s board-level executives could not be reached, but sources confirmed that the company is considering a Re 1 STD rate, coupled with a higher urban-area rental.

This is a politically less difficult decision than hiking rural rentals, and may partially offset the Re 1 STD tariff. The basic premise before BSNL is that STD charges have to be Re 1 per call or 60 second pulse rate, regardless of whatever else happens to a phone bill, according to sources.

BSNL has already said that it will face a revenue losses of around Rs 4,500 crore under OneIndia. The company’s only goal now is to ensure that if the current tariff of 40 paise per minute for STD stays, rural tariffs should not go up too.

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