New Delhi -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Thursday slashed its subscriber trunk dialling (STD) rates to Re.1 per minute with effect from Nov 1.

The current rate per minute is Rs.2.40.

It also slashed the rental rates of its 'One India' plan from Rs.225 to Rs.180 with the number of free calls provision being increased from 25 to 50.

Under the revised plan, all BSNL customers will be able to make local calls at Re.1 per three minutes instead of the existing Re.1.20 per three minutes.

The One India plan was launched in February to increase the frequency of subscriber trunk dialling (STD) under which people can call any part of the country for Re.1 per minute.

"This plan is the cheapest of any landline plans existing in the country and with this we want to emphasise the usage of landline phones by the people of India. The significant changes that we have made in the plan will make it more affordable for the lower middle class people and also for rural India," BSNL chairman A.K. Sinha told reporters here.

"With this change and reduction in the plan about 16 million of our subscribers will be directly benefited," Sinha said.

"The inter-circle STD calls will be around 58 percent cheaper whereas local and intra-circle STD calls will be 16 percent cheaper," said S.D. Saxena, BSNL director (finance).

"All our existing 4 lakh (400,000) customers of BSNL One India landline plan will also start getting slashed rates with effect from Nov 1," Sinha reiterated.

The pulse duration for local calls at public booths has also been enhanced to 60 seconds against the current 45 seconds with the call charges being Re.1 per minute.

With this revised plan, BSNL expects a surge of 20 percent in its net profit for the financial year 2006-07. The telecom giant has earned a revenue of Rs.401.77 billion for the year 2005-06 earning a net profit of Rs.89.4 billion.