Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Feb 22, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications MTNL to float Rs 2,000-cr tender for 40 lakh GSM lines Our Bureau
Mumbai , Feb. 21 BUOYED by its GSM subscriber additions in the recent months, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is readying a jumbo equipment tender for 40 lakh GSM lines — 20 lakh each in Delhi and Mumbai — for its circles of operation. At current costs, this contract would amount to Rs 1,800-2,000 crore, constituting one of the biggest single contracts to be issued in the telecom sector in recent times. The tender will be issued before the month end, said Mr Kuldeep Goyal, Executive Director, Mumbai, MTNL. The capacity expansion is scheduled to commence in early 2006, but MTNL is moving early on the project, having faced problems earlier on account of delays in finalisation of contracts. The result was that despite competitive tariffs, it had to suspend connections for several months before its last network capacity addition of four-lakh lines each in Delhi and Mumbai last October. But ever since that expansion, MTNL's GSM service, Dolphin, has added more subscribers every month than any of its other competitors in the Delhi and Mumbai circles. For example, in January, MTNL's Dolphin added 44,677 customers in New Delhi. This is far higher than what the other operators in that circle added. AirTel gained 12,992 customers, Hutch 8,245 and Idea 18,599. In Mumbai too, Dolphin added over 50,000 subscribers in January, whereas Hutch added 39,962 and BPL Mobile 7,123. "We had expected the capacity expansion to take care of demand till the end of 2005, but we think we would exhaust our capacity this May itself," said Mr Goyal. To immediately cope with the demand, MTNL will work on the earlier tender itself, which contains provisions for capacity expansion by 100 per cent, that means four-lakh lines each for Delhi and Mumbai, said Mr Goyal.
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