The tariff war in the telecom sector could not get hotter. After leading private operators have cut down their call rates it was the turn of BSNL to have the last laugh. BSNL has announced a slew of cuts in call tariffs.

Airtel had announced a charge of Rs 1.50 on all STD calls. This was followed by Vodafone which announced all STD calls at Rs 1.00. BSNL on Monday announced a 40-50 per cent reduction in STD charges of cellular services under various plans.

BSNL also announced a slashing of the call charges of landline services by 50 per cent. Under the landline services, STD rates have been reduced from Rs 2.40 to 1.20 paise per minute to all networks in general and ’sulabh’ plan. BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal said “The intra-circle call charges, to BSNL network and inter circle (STD) call charges to all the networks, has also been reduced by 50 per cent,”