MTNL to float 100 internet subsidiary

He said MTNL8217;s paging and integrated services digital network ISDN will also be hived off into the new company so that it becomes an integrated unit looking specifically at value-added services.

Millennium Telecom has already been registered in Mumbai and MTNL will soon appoint a new executive to head the Internet subsidiary, he said, adding this was his vision to transform MTNL into an information technology company.

quot;All the existing infrastructure facilities of MTNL will be made available to the Internetcompany,quot; he said. Regarding the equity structure of the proposed subsidiary, he said the paid-up capital will be minimal.

Currently, the MTNL8217;s revenue from Internet is at Rs 5 crore and it is targetting 40 per cent of the market share by the year 2002. Rajagopalan, however, said if permitted he would float a separate company for cellular operations too. quot;But as of now MTNL cannot go for that as the National Telcom Policy is against such a move,quot; he said.

MTNL, which started cellular operations this month is planning to expand it soon by providing 50,000 connections under code division multiple access CDMA each in Mumbai and Delhi, Rajagopalan said.