Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has reduced the rental of its cellular services, Garuda, to Rs 100 from Rs 300, and is planning a host of initiatives to retain its existing customers.

"The move is to make our GMS services economical and affordable, apart from substantially increasing our subscriber base," MTNL executive director R L Dube, who was recently transferred from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, told reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday.

The company has also reduced the activation charges of its GSM services by half to Rs 250, effective November 10 for a period of two months, he said.

However, customers opting for the scheme would have to foot only a rental of Rs 100 as long as the connection is active, he assured.

On October 2, MTNL had announced a similar scheme for its landline customers with free incoming and no outgoing facilities. Under the scheme, which ends on January 3, 2004, customers could make outgoing calls using virtual calling cards, he said.

The company is planning to wave the rental for its WLL post-paid connection, Dolphin, while the company is also planning to provide group and business connections with unlimited incoming calls, he said.

MTNL is also planning to increase the capacities of its GSM and WLL services to support an additional 400,000 connections each, he said, adding this would be done within a period of six months.