In a bonanza to telecom customers, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Monday announced a massive up to 47 per cent cut in domestic long distance rates on fixed line phones beyond 500 km.

"We have received the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's approval and have slashed the STD rates to Rs 4.80 a minute from the existing Rs 9 per minute," BSNL chairman and managing director Prithipal Singh said.

For distance up to 500 km, BSNL has not changed the rates, Singh said.

The new STD rates are effective from midnight of March 6 and 7.

In early January, BSNL had slashed mobile-to-mobile STD tariffs to Rs 4.80 per minute from Rs 9 beyond 500 km, while retaining the existing rates for below 500 km categories.

The corporation, in fact, had bettered the mobile-to-mobile STD rate cut announcement by cellular operators by going a step forward and extending the benefit of its reduced STD tariffs to calls from mobile to fixed line telephones also.