The Hindu : Front Page : Broadband tariff to be cut

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 28, 2005

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Broadband tariff to be cut

Sandeep Dikshit

MTNL sets stage for price war; plans to add five-lakh subscribers

NEW DELHI: The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited on Thursday set the stage for a price war by announcing that it was planning major cuts in broad-band tariffs, with rates declining to Rs. 199 a month from the current Rs. 399. The new tariff would be announced in a couple of days and would complement the festival season discounts announced in other segments, MTNL Chairman and Managing Director R.S.P. Sinha said after presenting a dividend cheque of Rs 88.59 crore to Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran.

MTNL planned to add five lakh broadband subscribers by the end of the current financial year. "I am confident of meeting the targets as the demand for MTNL broadband has been phenomenal," Mr. Sinha said, adding that MTNL had crossed the 51,000 mark in Delhi alone and had a subscriber base of over 90,000. "We are adding more than 500 subscribers every day each in Delhi and Mumbai. We are targeting to take the number to 2,000 a day," he added.

MTNL had hired two agencies after tendering to meet the demand for new connections. It also planned to offer free calls to subscribers provided they bought three connections — fixed line, mobile and broadband.

The company had declared dividend at the rate of 45 per cent on its paid up equity capital of Rs. 630 crores for 2004-05. It paid Rs. 70.87 crores at the rate of 20 per cent (Rs. 2 per share) as interim dividend in February 2005. The company had been paying dividend at the rate of 45 per cent for the past five years on its equity capital of Rs. 630 crores.

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