You must have seen this abbreviation many a times on BSNL website where they are mentioning their broadband tariff. Most of the their combo plans comes with free calls and is usually given in a numerical format like 250 or 300. These number basically refers to the MCU which stands for Metered Call Unit. A MCU is basically a pulse which is pre defined by BSNL. For e.g. most of the combo plans are based on One India landline by BSNL and in this particular plan:
- 180 Seconds Pulse duration for a landline to landline call.
- 120 Seconds Pulse duration for a landline to local mobile call.
- 60 Seconds Pulse duration for a landline to outside local mobile call.
There is one more fact here which is quite ambiguous and even BSNL employees don’t know much about this. So as per the above pulse duration, for 400 MCU we can call for:
- 37.5 Hours from our landline to a local landline.
- 33.3 Hours from our landline to a local mobile.
- 16.6 Hours from our landline to a outside local mobile.
But as per my latest telephonic conversation with a BSNL CC, they told me than in case you dial a local landline number from your landline than only first 3 minutes that is 180 seconds will be free and after that it will be charged as per the One India plan. Well this completely negates out the benefit of having free calls with combo plans but as you know it is still ambiguous for me.