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MTNL slashes cellular tariff, rental

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Tuesday drastically slashed tariff for its cellular services by cutting the rental from Rs 400 to Rs 250 a month, at par with the rental for basic services.

It has also brought down the outgoing call charges from Rs 2.70 to Rs 2.00 a minute.

Announcing the reduced tariff for MTNL's cellular service Dolphin, operational at Bombay and New Delhi, Union Telecommunications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters that it was part of the efforts to make tariff more affordable.

The cut in tariff, expected to trigger yet another price war, assumes significance in the wake of a fall in MTNL's cellular subscriber base in Delhi in May to 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 firm hold on the market, sources said, adding that "MTNL will now look forward to consolidating its position with the completion of network optimisation."

Bharti grabbed 345,000 subscribers in May, while subscriber base of Sterling rose to 243,000, according to Cellular Operators Association of India.

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