India's MTNL Signs Up 18,243 Mobile Users Since February Start
New Delhi, April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., India's second-largest fixed-line phone company, has signed up 18,243 users for its mobile service since it began services in February, the government said in parliament.
The company, which runs a 4 million-line fixed-phone network in the two cities of Delhi and Mumbai, has 10,211 subscribers in the capital and 8,032 in the financial hub of Mumbai, said Tapan Sikdar, junior minister for communications, in response to a parliament question.
Mahanagar Telephone is looking to enter new businesses such as mobile services to boost revenue as private competitors like Hughes Tele.com Ltd. wean away customers. The user numbers show that the state-owned company has been able to attract new customers for other services.
The mobile service is based on the Global System for Mobile communications, or GSM, standard.
The company also runs an older wireless service in Delhi that uses Qualcomm Inc.'s code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology. It has 6,307 subscribers for that service. However, 1,576 subscribers have canceled, citing poor quality of service, Sikdar said. The company is replacing the old CDMA network with a new one to improve quality, he said.
India had a total of 3.4 million mobile subscribers at the end of February, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India. MTNL's key markets of Delhi and Mumbai account for about a third of all users.
The company ranks third after Bharti Cellular Ltd. and Sterling Cellular Ltd. in Delhi and Hutchison Max Telecom Ltd. and BPL Mobile in Mumbai. British Telecommunications Plc owns 44 percent of Bharti and France Telecom SA owns 26 percent of BPL Mobile. Hong-Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. has controlling stakes in Sterling and Hutchison Max. All four private companies have, on average, more than 200,000 subscribers.
Mobile Market
The countrywide market for mobile services is expected to rise almost six-fold to 20 million by March 31, 2005, according to credit rating agency ICRA Ltd.
Separately, Arun Shourie, minister for privatization, said in parliament that there was no plan to sell the government's stakes in the company, other than a July 1999 decision that allows for selling 19 million of its shares to foreign or domestic investors. That sale, which would have reduced the government's stake to 51 percent from 56 percent, hasn't yet taken place.
Apr/17/2001 9:53 ET |
