Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited

Type	A publicly-listed state-owned enterprise
Traded as	NSE: MTNL BSE: 500108 NYSE: MTE
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	1986
Headquarters	New Delhi, India
Key people	Kuldip Singh (Chairman & MD)
Products	Fixed-line and mobile telephony, broadband and fixed-line internet services, digital television
Revenue	$788.7 million (2010)[1]
Net income	$-567.5 million (2010)[1]
Total assets	$6.988 billion (2010)[1]
Total equity	$1.351 billion (2010)[1]
Employees	45,000 (2010)[1]
Website	mtnl.net.in

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) (NSE: MTNL, BSE: 500108, NYSE: MTE) is a state-owned telecommunications service provider in the metro cities of Mumbai and New Delhi in India. The company was a monopoly until 1992, when the telecom sector was opened to other service providers. Transparency makes us different- is the motto of the company. In recent years, MTNL has been lossing revenue and market share heavily due immense competition in Indian telecom sector.^[2]

'Maha' = big or great, 'Nagar' = city or town, 'Mahanagar' = metropolis or megacity, 'Nigam' = venture or enterprise.

Products

MTNL provides fixed line telephones, cellular connection of both GSM — Dolphin(Postpaid) and Trump (prepaid) and WLL (CDMA) — Garuda-FW And Garuda-Mobile and internet services through dialup and DSL — Broadband internet TriBand. MTNL has also started Games on demand, video on demand and IPTV services in India through its Broadband Internet service called Triband. Phone numbers belonging to MTNL start with the prefix 2 in fixed line telephones and WLL & in GSM Mobile services start from 901x/ 9868/69 / 9968/69. MTNL also provides other services such as VPN,Internet Telephony- VOIP and leased lines through BSNL and VSNL.

MTNL has been actively providing connections in both Mumbai and New Delhi areas and the efficiency of the company has drastically improved from the days when one had to wait years to get a phone connection to now when one can get a connection in even hours. Pre-activated Mobile connections are available at many places across both Metros. MTNL has also unveiled very cost-effective Broadband Internet access plans (TriBand) targeted at homes and small businesses. At present MTNL enjoys the largest of the market share of ISP services in Mumbai and Delhi.

Former Indian Communications Minister Thiru Dayanidhi Maran had declared year 2007 as "Year of Broadband" in India and MTNL is gearing up to provide five million Broadband connectivity by the end of 2007.

MTNL has upgraded existing TriBand (Broadband) connections for a speed of up to 2 MB/s without any extra cost. This 2 MB/s broadband service is being provided by MTNL at a cost of just Rs 49 (US$1.00) per month. Every additional 1MB download after the 200 limit will cost you Rs 1 (0.5 cents) extra. MTNL also has an Unlimited Broadband plan without any “Fair Usage Policy” or limitations regarding download and uploads just at Rs.395 (US$8.00) per month.

3G Mobile Service By MTNL

MTNL started 3G services in India under the name of "MTNL 3G Jadoo" Services offered include Video call, Mobile TV and Mobile Broadband with high speed data connectivity up to 3.6 Mbit/s speed from 11 December 2008, getting India on the 3G map of the world. MTNL plans to offer 3G services across India by mid-2009. After that MTNL Mobile users would be able to surf the internet with speeds up to 3.6 Mbit/s on their smart phones. MTNL also provides data cards for surfing internet on the PC and Laptop at 3.6 Mbps. MTNL will be installing 15 lakh 3G lines in the first phase of its 3G roll-out in Mumbai and Delhi (which currently have 40 lakh existing mobile lines).

MTNL rolled out its BlackBerry solutions on the 2G and 3G networks by launching India’s first 3G enabled BlackBerry Bold smart phones.

Joint Venture(s) of MTNL

^[3]

Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML)

MTNL has set up its 100% subsidiary, Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited. (MTML) in Mauritius, for providing basic, mobile and international long distance services as second operator in Mauritius. Necessary licenses were obtained in January 2004. MTML has already started its ILD & CDMA based basic services in Mauritius. In Mauritius, 44,312 telephone connections are actually operational from a total switching capacity of 50,000. Moreover, through joint ventures with local telecommunications providers, MTML plans to offer internet access through its wireless network to its users in February 2007. (website : http://mtmltd.net/mtml/ )

MTNL-STPI IT Services Limited

MTNL-STPI IT Services Ltd. is a 50:50 Joint Venture between Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, (MTNL). The JV formed in 2006 combines the STPI's rich experience as an ISP and MTNL's track record of being India's leading telecom operating company to offer niche portal services to the Indian community. The JV was formed to realize one of the 10-point agenda of MoC&IT, which are of extreme importance to India for bringing about an all-round economic development. The JV aims to provide exclusive data center services, messaging services, business application services to the identified sectors of economic activity and thereby also popularizing the .in domain in the networked community across the world.

Millennium Telecom Limited (MTL)

MTNL has restructured Millennium Telecom Ltd. (MTL) as a Joint Venture company of MTNL and BSNL with 50% and 50% equity participation respectively. The company will now be entering into new business stream of international long distance operations and will be executing a project of submarine cable system, both east and west from India.

BSNL - MTNL Merger Plans

On February 23, 2011, The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said it wanted to revive a proposal for the merger of state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL. In its draft plan, the department while showing concern over the deteriorating performance of BSNL and MTNL said that BSNL and MTNL should be merged as they have complimentary operations and can combine their strengths for synergies. DoT said the government should set up a multi-stakeholder committee to develop a restructuring plan for both firms. The committee should have members from public enterprises, the DoT, department of IT and ministry of finance. The telecommunication operators should focus on enterprise business, services to government and the public sector, value-added services and technologies like 3G, the department recommends.^[4]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "2010 Form 10-K, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited". Hoover's. http://www.hoovers.com/company/Mahanagar_Telephone_Nigam_Limited/rytcjyi-1-1njea5.html. 
2. ^ http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/2010/01/08/stories/2010010853300400.htm
3. ^ http://www.mtnl.net.in/joint_ventures.htm
4. ^ http://www.telecompaper.com/news/india-revives-proposal-of-bsnl-mtnl-merger

External links

• MTNL Official website
• MTNL Delhi Official site
• MTNL Mumbai Official site
• MTNL Centre for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management (CETTM)