MTNL to say hello to cellular market

MTNL to say hello to cellular market
SANGEET KUMAR

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: If private cellular phone operators of the Capital need reasons to pull up their socks, they will soon have many. MTNL -- the public sector behemoth of basic telephone services -- plans to re-enter the cellular phone services market in a big way. If the plans of the corporation fall in place it could be as early as the end of this year.

A Mobile Switch Exchange (MSE), which helps connect one mobile phone to another, with a capacity of one lakh connections has already been set up at Karol Bagh and, according to MTNL Chief General Manager K.H. Khan, tests are on. Apart from this exchange, 147 Base Termination Stations (BTS) will be set up to provide a service ``free of glitches''. The process of acquisition of land for the BTS stations has begun.

Price remains a major point concern of the consumers but Khan says ``nothing has been decided on that front.''

Competitors have reacted with cautious optimism. Sudarshan Bannerjee, CEO of Sterling Cellulars which owns Essar, one of the players in Delhi, says: ``I am aware that MTNL is going ahead with its plans to enter the cellular phone market at full speed and I don't think that will lead to a bloodbath among the operators. I believe they will be good competitors and in the end the consumers will benefit greatly.''

The MTNL cellular service will conform to the Global Satellite Module (GSM) technology and will have numbers beginning from 98680 and 98681.

According to MTNL officials, great care has been taken to ensure that the problems that have been occurring with the cellular phone network in the Capital do not dog their phones.

N.K. Gupta, Principal General Manager (Development) of MTNL, says: ``A comprehensive survey was conducted to measure the signal level and the frequency at various points in the city by ITI Lucent and that data has helped us decide the points where the BTS stations will be located.''

However, whether a PSU with no prior expertise in cellular telephony will be able to take on global players is an open question. Khan is quick to thwart such doubts. ``We are a telecom company and we know our business as well as anybody else,'' he says. ``It is far more complex and difficult to run a landline telephone network because unlike the cellular phone network where you set up the connection and then only maintain it, a landline network requires you to take individual connections to each house.''

More of WLL
Consumers who queued up to register for MTNL's Wireless and Local Loop (WLL) mobile phones (different from cellular phones) last year will have reasons to cheer very soon. MTNL plans to come out with a second phase of registration for the WLL phones. As compared to around 5,000 phones that were sold last year, this time the number will be close to 50,000. There are plans to upgrade the range of the phones by erecting 26 towers in addition to the 11 already there. The tarrifs for the phones will remain at Rs 1.40 per local call; there will be a one-time installation fee of Rs 10,000 and a monthly rental of Rs 600. Says P.K. Saha, the GM(Marketing) of MTNL: ``These phones give value for money and we plan to increase subscription of these phones to 1,50,000 in three stages.''