In an attempt to woo the low income group, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Tuesday announced a new scheme `Sulabh' for basic phone subscribers with the facility of only incoming calls at rentals ranging between Rs 99 to Rs 160 a month.

In this scheme, the subscriber has to pay a rental of only Rs 160 or Rs 120 or Rs 99 per month, depending upon the size of the network, and the customer will get the facility of only incoming calls, Prithipal Singh, chairman and managing director, BSNL, said at a news conference in New Delhi.

"Customers can also make outgoing calls including long distance, both domestic and international, using the India Telecom card at applicable rate of Rs 1.10 per unit," Singh said.

The scheme would be made available from October 5, on the occasion of Dussera. It would also be extended to the existing customers who want to changeover to this scheme.

The company has also tied up with major vendors like Nokia, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, Alcatel and Siemens and Indian company Navtec for offering cellular handsets to its post-paid subscribers at an easy monthly installment starting from Rs 185. This scheme, starting from October 17, would initially be available to the SBI card holders.

In order to tap the growing community of SMS users, BSNL is also starting SMS on fixed line phones in Kolkata and Bangalore from October 24.

"This facility will be provided free of cost to our basic telephone customers," Singh said, adding the company has tied up with Beetel for supply of handsets which are estimated to be priced at about Rs 2,000.