MTNL cell phones in city by Aug 15

MUMBAI, JUNE 24: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has firmed up its plans to launch its GSM-based cellular phone services in Mumbai fr...

MUMBAI, JUNE 24: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has firmed up its plans to launch its GSM-based cellular phone services in Mumbai from August 15, MTNL chairman and managing director S Rajagopalan said. The company is planning to price its call rates at the lowest level “so that it can benefit lakhs of people who travel everyday in Mumbai,” the outgoing chairman said.

“It was my dream to commence cell phone operations in Mumbai before I leave on June 30. Therefore, I am glad that today we managed to achieve an important milestone by inaugurating the mobile switching system,” he said while addressing a news conference here today. While cell to cell phone calls could be made from August 15, cell phones to land lines will be made available from October 2 this year.

MTNL is targeting to launch the services initially with one lakh customers in its first year of operations which would be expanded to four lakhs in phases. The MTNL mobile system will cover entire Mumbai metropolis besides Thane, Mira Road, Bhayander and New Mumbai. MTNL’s cell phone rates is set to hit the private sector operators like Hutchison and BPL Mobile who will have no other option but to reduce its rates to match MTNL rates.

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As the MTNL is planning to bring Mumbai’s neighbouring areas like Kalyan and Vasai into its fold, the cell phones would be available as far as Virar.

“We are looking at the mobile phone growth coming from volumes as the top end of the market has been already covered by the private operators. Thus, it’s the middle half of the pyramid we are targeting and we will offer services at the lowest tariff possible. Due to the recent crash in equipment and handset prices, we have managed to keep our costs at very low… we are planning to pass on the entire benefits to the consumers,” Rajagopalan said.

MTNL’s mobile phone network would be completely independent of its basic phones operations and the company is looking at the option of providing various value-added services like cell broadcast centre, short message services and voice message services. Besides, MTNL would be providing pre-paid roaming to all its customers.

Bangalore-based ITI and Lucent Technologies of US are supplying the equipment at a cost of $ 1 billion. The GSM-900 equipment provides better speech quality, higher network capacity and fax and data transfer facility. “The services would be available in every nook and corner of the metropolis and I assure that there will not be any call dropping,” Rajagopalan said.

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There will not be any pre-registration for mobile phones and the cell phones would offered off-the-shelf as soon as the network is ready, the CMD said.

Talking about MTNL’s other plans, Rajagopalan said the company has already filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the US and it is awaiting its clearance for its ADR issue to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

On lack of customer care at the front end levels, i.e. between linesmen and customer, Rajagopalan said MTNL is taking every step to educate its front line staff to take care of customer complaints. “They have to realise that the so-called PSU culture in the days of privatisation will not be tolerated. A customer can walk out of the company to private sector which we have to avoid,” he said.