In a bonanza to its landline subscribers in urban areas, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has reduced the registration charges for new connections in urban areas from Rs 2000 to Rs 500.

The reduced registration charges for landline connection takes effect from December 1, 2004.

With that, the registration charge for rural and urban subscribers has become equal.

The PSU has decided to cut the tariffs for its MPLS-VPN service (corporate networking) up to 2 Mbps by 43 per cent across the board effective from December 1. It recently cut the tariffs for Direct Internet Access Service.

The BSNL is planning to manufacture SIM cards for GSM-based mobile services, with an aim to meet the growing demand for its cellular services.

The PSU, which operates in the entire country except Delhi and Mumbai, has invited tenders for the turnkey project for supply, installation, trial and commissioning of plant and machinery, including transfer of technology for the manufacture of GSM SIM cards of all sizes -- 16K, 32K and 64K, company officials said.

These cards are to be manufactured by the chosen bidder at BSNL's Mumbai factory where some telecom equipment like switches are manufactured.

The bidder would have to be an Indian company or Indian company registered to manufacturer SIM cards by a foreign manufacturers.