MTNL to set up Millennium Telecom

NEW DELHI, OCT 28: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL will set up a 100 per cent subsidiary Millennium Telecom'' for Internet and oth...

NEW DELHI, OCT 28: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL will set up a 100 per cent subsidiary 8220;Millennium Telecom8221; for Internet and other value-added services including paging and ISDN next month with an initial capital of Rs 100 crore.

quot;We have convened an emergency meeting of the shareholders on November 19 to ratify formation of the new subsidiary and hope to commission the new company by November 21,quot; S Rajagopalan, chairman and managing director of MTNL told newspersons here today.

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 Internet company,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.

Story continues below this ad

quot;There is a great demand for this services and is aimed at people who cannot afford the costly services provided by the private operators,quot; he said.

The company has also approached the Government for expanding its jurisdiction to suburban areas close to Mumbai and Delhi where it is the telecom service provider.

quot;We want to make use of our advantageous position and provide telecom services to areas such as Ghaziabad, near Delhi and Greater Mumbai,quot; MTNL chief said.

Rajagopalan said the company would launch cellular services under global satellite mobile GSM technology by June and would look at a target of one lakh subscribers in the initial phase to take to 4.5 lakh subscribers by 2002.