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MTNL to add another four lakh GSM phones

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI MAY 31. Deciding to catch up with the rapid growth of the mobile telephony market in the Capital, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has decided to add another four lakh GSM (Global System of Mobile) phones within the next one year. With this, MTNL will increase its existing capacity of 2.25 lakh GSM lines to 6.25 lakh lines.

According to MTNL's Chief General Manager (Mobile Services), J.M. Mishra, the company is working towards consolidating its position in the mobile telephony market in the Capital. Notably, there are over 20 lakh GSM phone subscribers in Delhi while on an average over 50,000 new connections are being added to this list every month.

On an average, MTNL, which now has 1.36 lakh GSM mobile subscribers, has been adding over 6,000 phones every month in the Capital . "We have been introducing several attractive tariff plans and other schemes to attract new subscribers. Recently we even reduced our outgoing calling rates by as high as 60 per cent. Besides, we are now charging just 80 paise for SMS (Short Messaging Service) which is the cheapest in the Capital,'' says Mr. Mishra.

The introduction of cheap tariff and value-added services, particularly after the implementation of the IUC (Interconnect Usage Charges) regime from May 1 where all incoming calls were made free, the mobile market will further expand in the years to come, according to Mr. Mishra.

In fact, it was by the end of 2002 that MTNL had exhausted its capacity in the pre-paid card category "Trump''. within six months of its launch after which it introduced another 1.25 lakh lines in February this year. It is learnt that MTNL has already placed the order for equipment meant for capacity expansion in the cellular segment.

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