MTNL to expand CDMA mobile service
REUTERS [ TUESDAY, MARCH 05, 2002 10:30:35 PM ]
EW DELHI: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam plans to increase the network capacity of its limited area mobile service to 300,000 customers from 100,000 now, its chief said on Tuesday.
MTNL, the main fixed-line telephone service operator in the nation's two main cities of Mumbai and New Delhi, last year launched a mobile service, which uses the CDMA wireless in local loop technology.
The company also runs the more expensive GSM mobile and Internet access services in the two cities.
While CDMA WLL-based mobile service tariffs are capped at Rs 1.2 for three minutes, the same as that for fixed-line phones. Regular mobile tariffs are around two rupees a minute.
"We are presently upgrading the network," MTNL's Chairman and Managing Director Narinder Sharma said, when asked about the expansion plans for its WLL service.
"We have a total plan for 150,000 lines, out of which 50,000 have been installed in Delhi," Sharma said, adding that the company had a similar plan for Mumbai.
The New York Stock Exchange-listed MTNL , which has so far enjoyed a monopoly over the fixed-line telephone business in New Delhi, received a jolt on Monday after private company Bharti Tele-Ventures launched its service in the Indian capital.
Analysts expect Bharti, which has earned its spurs operating mobile networks in several Indian provinces including the national capital, to wean away MTNL's customers by claiming to offer a superior service.
But Sharma appeared unfazed.
"World over, it's seen the addition of a new player only expands the market," he said, adding that the entry of Hughes Tele.com in Mumbai had not adversely affected MTNL.
He said it would also take a private competitor years to match MTNL's infrastructure.
MTNL has 4.3 million fixed-line customers in the two cities, of which 2.3 million are in Mumbai.
Sharma said MTNL was pulling up its socks on customer service and was planning a slew of new services for its customers.
He did not reveal details.
MTNL's shares ended Tuesday 4.25 per cent down at Rs 147.40 on the Mumbai exchange whose 30-share benchmark index closed 0.04 per cent down. |
