NEW DELHI, DEC 5: After the success of its GDR issue, the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has decided to invest over Rs 1,100 crore for providing cellular services in Delhi and Mumbai.Addressing a press conference here on Friday, MTNL chairman and managing director S Rajagopalan said the company will float a separate joint venture company for handling cellular services in the two cities.The new company is likely to send shock waves to private operators who fear stiff competition from the new venture. Private operators are apprehensive that with MTNL entering the cellular sector, it will open a situation of unequal competition as it is also the operational wing of DoT - the licensor for value-added services.Each metro has two private operators who in the last two years have built up a substantial subscriber base. MTNL claims that it has the capacity to provide the cheapest and best service to its subscribers."We will be choosing the technology by this month-end and in the next three months, tenders will be invited and orders placed for the equipment. The joint venture company, advertisements for which will be issued in January, is expected to be in place by March 1998," Rajagopalan informed.Giving a detailed timetable and strategy for the new venture, the MTNL chief said the equipment will be installed by the second quarter of 1998.
