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Our Bureau

"We are also thinking of going into 3G technology, possibly wide-band CDMA."

Mumbai , Oct. 4

MAHANAGAR Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) plans to increase its GSM wireless capacity to 18-lakh lines in Mumbai by the end of next year, according to Mr R.L. Dube, Executive Director of the company for Mumbai.

A new GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) switch of 4-lakh line capacity has recently had its soft launch in the city and will be ready for commercial launch in 15-days' time. This will be WAP, GPRS and MMS enabled, and what's more, will be upgraded to EDGE technology very soon.

The capacity will be increased further to 6-lakh lines by March thereafter, to add 10-lakh lines, with the identical pattern to be followed in Delhi, said Mr Dube. The company's CDMA lines too will add a 4-lakh line switch of the latest CDMA 2000-1x technology.

"We are also thinking of going into 3G technology, possibly wide-band CDMA," he said.

MTNL has been able to arrest the net loss of its fixed line customers as of September 30, 2004. Earlier, the net loss used to be between 3,000 and 6,000 every month in Mumbai. But the net gain of customers during last month has been 3,000, with more new customers coming in, he said.

This has been accomplished due to the success of the company's Fixed Wireless Telephone, which sold more than 12,000 over last month; as well as through convincing customers who wanted to relinquish their lines to settle for more suitable tariff packages, said MTNL officials.

The commission to Public Call Office-holders (PCO) from MTNL has been increased from a maximum of 20 per cent, to a maximum of 30 per cent, to compensate them from the loss arising from falling tariffs.

On the enterprise side, MTNL, along with BSNL, has signed up 12 corporate customers to whom the two PSUs will jointly provide a whole range of telecommunication services for their customers' locations across the country.

These corporates are largely public sector companies; some of them being Indian Oil Corporation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Punjab National Bank and, an exception being ICICI Bank.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Maharashtra

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