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MTNL may reduce cellular tariffs on Tuesday

State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, which started the price war in cellular services, is likely to announce a significant reduction in tariffs for its cellular service, Dolphin, in Delhi and Bombay on Tuesday.

According to highly-placed sources, MTNL is planning to cut monthly rentals by over 30 per cent from the existing rate of Rs 400, besides rationalising airtime charges.

"Our aim is to bring monthly rentals closer to land-line rent at Rs 250," sources said, adding that MTNL would also offer different tariff packages suiting different kinds of subscribers.

They, however, refused to give details about different tariff plans.

According to latest figures released by the Cellular Operators Associations of India, MTNL had witnessed a marginal fall in its subscriber base in Delhi in May at 9,884 from 10,080 in April this year.

In Delhi, real competition continues to be between Bharti and Sterling, with the latest entrant MTNL's Dolphin still struggling for a stranglehold on the market, sources said.

"MTNL will now look forward for consolidating its position with the completion of network optimisation," they added.

Bharti grabbed 345,000 subscribers in May, Sterling subscriber base rose to 243,000, according to COAI statistics.

Sources say that there is a scope for reduction in the prices for cellular services as the cost of per line was coming down fast with the advancement of technology.

MTNL had planned to cut the tariffs even earlier but was waiting for its network optimisation, sources said, adding that now almost the entire Delhi and a large part of the national capital region have been covered.

Recently, other private cellular operators Bharti and Sterling had announced different tariff packages.

Bharti had announced a monthly rental of Rs 295 with both incoming and outgoing calls costing Rs 2.30 a minute, while Essar of Sterling had announced different plans carrying minimum commitment airtime with lower rates for incoming and outgoing calls.

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