New Delhi: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam has started a war of another kind. The company has announced up to 28 per cent cut in tariffs for fixed line telecom services by reducing the monthly rentals.

Under the scheme, BSNL has cut the monthly rental to Rs180 from the existing Rs250 in urban areas and Rs210 in rural areas. The rental cut is likely to impact BSNL''s revenues by up to Rs600 crore annually. However the scheme would benefit subscribers substantially.

BSNL CMD A K Sinha said, "The subscriber will save up to 28 per cent in the effective monthly bills." This follows BSNL''s recent offer on its prepaid cards as it joined other mobile operators to launch a pre-paid card with lifetime validity for Rs949 which includes preloaded talk time of Rs99.

The local call rates under a pre-paid card would be Rs1.60 per minute within BSNL network and Rs2 to other networks. For STD calls, the call rates would be Rs2.40 within the BSNL network and Rs3 to other networks.

The new scheme comes into effect from January 1.