The Hindu Business Line : MTNL to spend Rs 866 cr on Mumbai circle this year

The company has substantially reduced its landline-to-landline night-time tariff, increasing the pulse rate to five minutes from three minutes, said Mr Kuldeep Goyal, Executive Director, MTNL, Mumbai.

Of the amount earmarked for the Mumbai circle, Rs 287 crore would be spent on switching equipment, Rs 214 crore on transmission equipment, and Rs 79 crore on OFC ducting, he said.

The investments also include Rs 136 crore towards CDMA services, Rs 64 crore towards GSM service and Rs 79 crore on information technology requirements.

The overall investment of Rs 1,867 crore also includes an amount of Rs 200 crore towards the company's overseas investments, such as its operations in Mauritius and Nepal.

During the year ended March 31, 2004, MTNL added 2.9 lakh GSM subscribers, and 40,000 CDMA subscribers. However the company's fixed line subscriber base came down by 90,000 in Mumbai.

MTNL has announced two broadband plans. One is the pay-as-you-use plan with zero rental and Rs 2 per MB of data download. The other is an unlimited night browsing plan for Rs 590 a month for 500 MB of free download free browsing between 12 midnight and 8 a.m. Additional charges beyond the free limit will be charged at Rs 1.20 per MB.

The Mumbai development plans for the current year include expansion of GSM technology by another 2 lakh lines from the existing 6.25 lakh; broadband capacity to be augmented by another 90,000 lines, up from 1.8 lakh lines; and introduction of the latest CDMA 20001x technology with capacity of 4 lakh which is to be commissioned shortly.

There are several other plans for infrastructure expansion and modernisation, billing systems, a call centre, and introduction of Wi-Fi connectivity at hotels and clubs.

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