Given a chance MTNL would like to bid for these two states in a joint venture with Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), MTNL chairman and managing director S Rajagopalan said. ``But I would like to bid on the basis of the revenue-sharing formula only and not the upfront licence fee,'' Rajagopalan added.

In fact government should take a bold decision to follow only the revenue sharing formula in the future as this will benefit both parties, he said. The fourth round of bidding for basic services in various circles including Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and North eastern states among others has already begun.

MTNL will also be inviting tenders for its proposed smartcard phone by the end of the month, Rajagopalan said. The tender will be for the complete network including central computer, mini computers and telephone boxes.It will be an on-linesmart card system, completely computerised so that health of the telephone boxes can be monitored continuously through computers, he added.