Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd plans to invest Rs 2,284 crore (Rs 22.84 billion) this fiscal for developing telecom infrastructure, including the code division multiple access networks in the country, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited on Monday expressed willingness to lower the 'carriage' charge, a move which will lead to lower STD call rates between Delhi and Mumbai to start with.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited may stand to lose two of its exclusive mobile service offerings -- seamless connectivity and free roaming with BSNL -- if it moves to other private players for carrying its STD traffic, saving a few billions.
The telecom ministry will decide on the merger between the state-owned telecom companies, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, only after the listing of the former.
The public sector unit had borrowed Rs 7,500 crore (Rs 75 billion) in the last one month to pay the government for acquiring 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum in the two metros of Delhi and Mumbai.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Friday announced a special tariff plan for basic service users with Rs 160 monthly rental aiming at low end users. The company also announced two packages for Internet users.
The Department of Telecommunications is considering a proposal to allocate spectrum, the radio frequencies that enable wireless communications, for third-generation or 3G services to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd ahead of other operators. The move is expected to frustrate private players since this will give BSNL and MTNL a head-start in rolling out high-value 3G services that offer video calls, music downloads and games.
State-run telecom firm Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd plans to apply for a national long distance licence to the department of telecom shortly, in an effort to bring down its STD call charges
Of the total proposed allocation, over Rs 1 lakh crore is meant for BSNL and MTNL-related expenses, including Rs 82,916 crore infusion in BSNL for technology upgradation and restructuring at BSNL.
The state-owned MTNL on Friday announced reintroduction of full talk value on all denomination of recharge coupons for subscribers of its pre-paid service Trump, but hiked SMS charges to Re 1 per SMS for both pre-paid and post-paid users.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Tuesday announced a partial roll-back in telephone tariffs by increasing the number of free calls per month.
The Indian government does not plan to privatise state-run telecom firms Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd before 2004.
New subscribers can avail new '3G Tariff', with local voice and video call charges at 20 paise per minute on own local network and 50 paise per minute for other local networks across Mumbai telecom circle with lifetime validity, MTNL said in a statement.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to allocate one block of 3G spectrum in each service area except Delhi and Mumbai to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) at a price equivalent to the highest bid in the respective service areas.
BSNL, MTNL to match cell phone tariff cuts
At present, in BSNL and MTNL, there is no such proposal for reduction of landline call charges and mobile roaming charges, officials of both the companies said.
The top court, however, clarified that if the petitioner wanted to take any recourse to appropriate statutory remedy, he was at liberty to do so.
In one of the largest deals in West Asia, a consortium of Indian telecom firms led by Delhi-based Vavasi Group, which also hopes to rope in state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and a Malaysian investor, will acquire a 46 per cent stake in Kuwaiti telecom company Zain for around $13.7 billion.MTNL and BSNL said they would like to clarify that no view has been taken regarding their participation in the consortium.
The decision is likely to bring additional amount of about Rs 1,500 crore or Rs 15 billion (including interest) in the books of MTNL as refund from government for the pension that the PSU paid to its employees.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd will soon expand its network by an additional 4 lakh GSM lines. The company has awarded a contract for this purpose to US-based telecom equipment vendor Motorola.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have sent separate letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT), asking the government to bear the entire burden of nearly Rs 11,000 crore they need to fork out as one-time payment for additional spectrum.
According to a senior company official, BSNL is in the process of appointing recovery agents on a commission basis to bring back the money.
Announcing the launch of the pre-paid 3G service, company CMD R S P Sinha said, "MTNL is launching 3G Jadoo Prepaid Services so that customer should be able to avail the latest 3G/3.5G services at an affordable price". Since pre-paid is the preferred by customers, the 3G service will be available for only Rs 300 with lifetime validity, whereby a customer can make local video calls at Rs 1.8/minute and data download at Rs 3/MB.
At present MTNL and BSNL do not impose roaming charges for mobile internet services on each others customers.
State owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd will lose an additional revenue of up to Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) for not implementing the standard tariff package announced by telecom regulator Trai.\n\n\n\n
MTNL to invest Rs 500 cr on capacity expansion
The two PSUs, however, when contacted, said they are yet to receive any communication from the DoT and would decide once they receive such a demand.
The asset monetisation exercise in the first phase will help BSNL shave off its Rs 14,000-crore debt. The government has said that these firms are strategically important and will not be closed down or divested.
The refund also includes interest payment of Rs 166.19 crore (Rs 1.66 billion), which would increase the net profit of MTNL for the last financial year. "The interest component will have an impact on our net profitability. We are expecting it to go up by about Rs 120 crore," MTNL Director (Finance) Anita Soni told PTI. The company has lined up huge investments to ramp its GSM capacity both in Delhi and Mumbai and also broadband network.
State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has reported a dip in net profit to Rs 877.1 crore (Rs 8.771 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2003 as against Rs 1300.6 crore (Rs 13.006 billion) in the previous year.
Minister said the government wants to bring them back to profitability.
For FY16, MTNL's standalone net loss was over Rs 2,000 crore.
The government last month had approved a plum Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and offering VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.
To revive the two state-run telecom operators, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), the government is likely to waive the one-time fee these telcos need to pay for retaining additional spectrum.
New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited slashes local and STD roaming tariffs, abolishes monthly rental for roaming for Delhi subscribers.
'It has remained around 38 per cent over the past four to five quarters.'
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