Ending the long wait over next generation telecom services, MTNL on Friday said it will commercially launch its 3G services in the national capital within 10 days.
The minister said the reasons for withdrawal of landline connections includes preference for mobile phones, move to private operator, disconnections due to non-payment of dues and surrendering of second telephone taken for get internet connection due to availability of broadband. The total number of landlines in the country as on March 2008 is 39 million, which was 4 crore in March 2007. At present, BSNL has 31 million landline users while MTNL has 3.68 million users.
Expressing concern over decline in the share of public sector companies BSNL and MTNL in overall telephones during the last five years, the government on Friday asked them to plan for an additional 100-150 million lines over the next three years.
Sam Pitroda said that the MTNL-BSNL merger is not the only solution and asked the government to give them more autonomy by lowering its stake to below 51 per cent.
A panel said BSNL can claim tax breaks if it merges with a loss-making ITI and suggested BSNL can also merge MTNL with itself.
Indian consumers will have their tryst with 3G telecom services in the next six months, with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announcing that it is issuing state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) spectrum to roll out all-India services.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Saturday announced a pulse rate of 12 seconds and a standard plan monthly rental of Rs 200 for its WLL service 'Garuda'.\n\n
Telecom giant Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd said on Thursday it would levy no incoming call charge on its cellular service, matching a move made last week by the fast-growing sector's biggest player, BSNL.
A deputy general manager for Global System for Mobile Communications services and assistant general manager (sales) of MTNL, Mumbai, had allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with nine distributors of MTNL subscriber identity module (SIM) cards and helped them in extracting commission from the company on the basis of fake customer forms.
BK Modi-promoted Spice Group and British Virgin Mobile have bid for MTNL's franchise deals to offer 3G services in Mumbai and Delhi.
State-run MTNL on Tuesday launched voice SMS service for its fixed and mobile subscribers in New Delhi with technological support from the US-based value-added services provider Kirusa.
Telecom regulator TRAI has said private GSM operators were acting as a "cartel" against MTNL and BSNL and charging higher tariffs from customers for calls terminating in the networks of the two state-run companies.
This move comes after the appointment of the company's new chairman and managing director Kuldip Singh.
The company has been designated as the official telecom service provider for Commonwealth Games 2010, to be held in Delhi, and it has already received Rs 182 crore (Rs 1.82 billion) from the government for providing infrastructure.
Two years after having allotted third-generation (3G) spectrum without any contest to its own telecom companies, on the promise that they'd match the prices later paid by private sector winners of the auction for it, the communications ministry now wants them to get it for free.
Speaking at the sidelines of the launch of its pre-paid 3G mobile service, MTNL's CMD R S P Sinha said: "In the first year of operations, we want between 200,000 and 300,000 customers for our 3G services." Interestingly, after about six months of operations, MTNL has only 400 subscribers for its 3G service, which has been branded 'Jadoo'.
Scheme likely to come into force by June or July this year; both PSUs have been losing revenues and market share.
State-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL have to recover a massive Rs 4,469 crore (Rs 44.69 billion) outstanding dues from states, centre, defence establishments and private subscribers, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
State-run MTNL has received the highest amount of spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai at 12.4 Mhz as on March 2009, while private GSM operators Bharti and Vodafone are not far behind at 10 Mhz each in the same period.
Even as it selected a franchisee to run its 3G telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai circles, state-run MTNL said it was unlikely to be able to implement mobile number portability by the government deadline of December 31, which is supposed to bind all players.
In the first ever indication of a possible merger of two public sector telecom companies, MTNL and BSNL, the government on Thursday said it was appointing advisors for synergising their operations.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have submitted alternate basic (landline) telephony tariff plans, pegging the rates much below the ceiling rates announced by TRAI
Taking a cue from Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which had earlier reduced bandwidth prices
According to a company statement, IOL Netcom will also introduce a variety of value added services. IOL Netcom's CDMA mobile services will offer multi-play services, comprising mobile, data card, desktop CDMA phone, IPTV and broadband services, among others.
Three telecom giants, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Videsh Sanchar Nigam and Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd have formed a joint venture and got licence to offer basic telephony.
State-run MTNL will approach the telecom tribunal TDSAT against the TRAI order that brings new access deficit charge regime from February 1, within two days .
Communications Minister Arun Shourie on Thursday asked state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd to make the optimum use of its huge cash reserves and aggressively explore foreign markets.
The government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited would not be privatised in the near future.\n\n\n\n
The central government has no plans of divesting stakes in public sector telecom firms - BSNL and MTNL - as the two were performing well in the competitive telecom sector.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Tuesday announced two tariff schemes for Internet users in the households under which a new telephone connection would be provided to be used only for accessing Internet and for incoming calls.\n\n
Public sector undertakings - MTNL and BSNL have not yet given any time frame for testing of services for interception of Blackberry services notwithstanding the December 31 government deadline for operators to comply with it or shut their services.
The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has announced new outgoing rates under IUC regime for its pre-paid mobile card Trump, revising the outgoing charges for calls to landline phones to Rs 2.70 per minute.
Close on the heels of BSNL slashing its international tariffs, state-owned MTNL on Wednesday announced a 40 per cent reduction in ISD rates to the United States and Europe for a month, as part of a festive offer.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for IT and Communications Shakeel Ahmad said a consortium of consultants led by ICICI Securities has suggested some options for restructuring of MTNL and BSNL.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited has stopped offering new mobile connections in Mumbai as equipment supplier ITI has failed to expand the capacity, contracts for which were placed over an year ago under the reserve quota for public sector firms.
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