MTNL tied up with Aksh Optifibre to launch India’s first legal Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service, NetFone, for its broadband subscribers in New Delhi. [via agencyfaqs] MTNL’s broadband subscribers in New Delhi can make calls via their PC or telephone to 150 countries with calls to US, the UK and Canada priced at Re 1 per minute, calls to countries such as Japan and Malaysia at Rs 2 per minute and for all other countries at Rs 3 per minute. If the call is made through a telephone, the subscriber will have to attach a small device to enable VoIP. This facility will be available at all MTNL PCOs, too.

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Registration and installation costs Rs 500 and subscribers have to make a one-time payment of Rs 1,500 for the device that enables VoIP. The two plans that MTNL offers are: Plan VoIP 200 with a monthly rental of Rs 200, which offers 400 minutes of PC-to-PC calls free and 20 paise per minute thereafter; and Plan VoIP 400 with a monthly rental of Rs 400, which offers 800 minutes of PC-to-PC calls free and 10 paise per minute thereafter. Following the usage of these call times there are prepaid cards available in denominations of Rs 100, Rs 500 and Rs 1,000, with validity of three months, six months and 12 months, respectively.