The Hindu Business Line : Rollout of Internet services — MTNL to tie up with State electronic corporations

TO move beyond the saturated Delhi and Mumbai markets, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is entering into an agreement with State electronic corporations with Internet service provider licences for their States.

MTNL has already tied up with the electronic corporations in Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka and is in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding with the Kerala State Electronics Corporation.

The agreement is being done through MTNL's wholly owned subsidiary, Millennium Telecom Ltd, which was formed in 2000 to offer value-added services. Through the association, MTNL plans to use the established network of various electronics corporations.

For instance, MTNL is selling its Internet packages through the Himachal Pradesh State Electronic Corporation in areas such as Simla.

According to a vision document prepared by MTNL for 2005, Millennium Telecom plans to roll out a router-based packetised telecom network and create facilities such as application development centre, Internet data centre, STP facilities and payment gateway.

The subsidiary is also pursuing the establishment of broadband Internet access for the corporate segment and Voice Over Internet Protocol telephony services throughout the country with the use of technologies such as VSAT. MTNL has been striving to move to other parts of the country for some time to capitalise on its resources. The Government has also initiated a process to merge MTNL with BSNL, which will give the company access to a nationwide market. However, the merger process has slowed down due to MTNL's objection to the proposal of becoming BSNL's subsidiary. MTNL is in favour of a straight merger with BSNL but the Government is not too keen on it due to high costs.

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Rollout of Internet services — MTNL to tie up with State electronic corporations