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Journalism of Courage
In A major overseas initiative, state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has bagged three licences for offering fixed, GSM based mobile and international long distance services (ILD) in Mauritius and plans to invest upto $18 million in the first phase. ‘‘We have set up a 100 per cent owned subsidiary in Mauritius under the name Mahanagar Telephone (Mauritius) Ltd,’’ MTNL CMD R.S.P Sinha said.
‘‘We are organising the set up there. We should be starting rolling out network soon… We plan to start services within next six months,’’ Sinha said adding that once this company is set up this can be used as a launching pad for tapping African countries. Initially MTNL plans to set up network for 50,000 lines (upgradable for 100,000 lines) based on CDMA technology, Sinha said adding that ‘‘we are talking to Qualcomm for having dual model handsets which could be used for international roaming on CDMA.’’
This, however, is yet to be finalised, he said. ‘‘The potential in Mauritius is tremendous. Although the tele-density is quite high, it is lower than other tourist destinations like Singapore.’’ This is MTNL’s second overseas venture after Nepal where the company has tied up with other partners including VSNL and TCIL for offering WLL based mobile services. (PTI)
