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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (1612)	9/16/1999 9:09:00 PM
From: LBstocks	Respond to of 13582

09/16 07:33 India's MTNL plans cut price mobile phone scheme By Josey Puliyenthuruthel NEW DELHI, Sept 16 (Reuters) - India's Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd <MTNL.BO> (MTNL) said on Thursday that it will use a technology that uses radio signals as a cut-rate springboard into the mobile phone business. The "fixed-wireless" technology would enable the 56 percent state-controlled company, which offers fixed-line phone and Internet services in Delhi and Bombay, to offer the cheapest mobile phone rates in the country, company officials said. Fixed-wireless services use radio signals to link subscribers to the nearest exchange. But the technology does not offer the easy mobility of cellular telecom services and is said to function poorly in fast-moving traffic and between tall buildings. "We want to start a poor man's cellphone service using the systems we already have. We will be offering 2,500 (cellular) connections immediately," MTNL Chief General Manager A.K. Bhatnagar told Reuters. He said that on Wednesday the Department of Telecommunications granted MTNL permission to start the service, and the company expected to make a formal announcement soon. Bhatnagar said MTNL would expand an existing fixed-wireless exchange to serve 50,000 customers next year, up from the current 10,000. "By March (2000), we are targetting 20,000 (cellular) users. The remaining 30,000 will be fixed-wireless users." Since 1996, MTNL has been offering fixed-wireless services on an experimental basis, mainly to government subscribers, using a code division multiple access (CDMA)-based system supplied by Qualcomm Inc <QCOM.O>. Bhatnagar said MTNL would offer the service at 1.40 rupees (3.2 U.S. cents) per three-minute call. He declined to spell out the monthly rental, but said it was expected to be between 250 and 600 rupees. Most Indian cellular companies offer usage charges of three to six rupees per minute, with a 600-rupee monthly rental. However, MTNL has not put aside an earlier plan to start cellular services using European technology in Delhi and Bombay. "The GSM plan is more capital-intensive and the service will be expensive. But we expect to start it also next year," he said. GSM refers to global system for mobile communications, an European digital cellular standard. In 1997, MTNL had budgeted about $150 million for setting up a GSM-based cellular system, but its plans were bogged down by litigation after private operators filed suits against it. Until August, GSM was the mandated technology for Indian cellular networks. But a new telecom policy has removed restrictions on the technologies that can be deployed, allowing MTNL to use its CDMA system. The company needs approval of the proposed tariffs for the service from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Bhatnagar declined to give details of projected additional revenues from the service. MTNL reported earnings of 3.25 billion rupees ($74.71 million) in the first three months of 1999/2000 (April-March) on revenues of 12.64 billion. MTNL's share was trading at 180 rupees around closing time in Bombay on Thursday, nearabout the previous close of 180.95. ($1 = 43.5 rupees) ((New Delhi Newsroom +91-11-301-2024 Fax +91-11-301-4043,