Kochi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will set up specialised outlets for its products in the lines of Reliance WebWorld shops.

The first such shop in the city — displaying various types of telephone instruments, accessories and demonstration of phone, internet, ISDN and mobile/ITC services — will start functioning on the third floor of Jose Annex Building, CTO, from 10 November.

The shop will also sell the CD-Rom directory of the Kerala circle. With BSNL mobile service becoming popular, the cellular major has also decided to double its capacity to 6 lakh before December. The reach of the mobile service will also increase as 250 additional towers are being planned along the major highways and railway tracks of the state.

For the landline, the company has introduced Sulabh, a new tariff scheme with reduced rent for consumers requiring mainly incoming calls. The scheme will be available only in urban areas and will have a monthly rental of Rs 160.

The outgoing calls in this scheme are at the rate of Rs 1.20 per metered call unit (MCU) and outgoing calls using ITC will be available at Rs 1.10 MCU. The company will also commission the manage leased line network (MLLN) in the state in the coming month. Work on the same is in progress in the Ernakulam SSA and the first phase will cover 22 exchanges.

With the implementation of MLLN, leased line customers will have a stable network with added facilities and augmented bandwidth.

Wireless in local loop (WLL) exchanges of 750-line capacity have been commissioned at Arakkulam and Njarakkal among others, say BSNL officials. The answering machine service now available in Ernakulam SDCA will be extended to all exchanges in the district and the company has done away with the Rs 100 one-time activation charge to avail of the facility.