Top 10: 5 - MTNL: GSM Shows The Way

MTNL


Area of operation: Fixed
Services, Mobile Services, Internet Services, Enterprise Data Services

Address:
Jeevan Bharti Tower-I, 12th Floor, 124, Connaught Circus, New Delhi —110001

Phone: +91-11-23719020

Fax: +91-11-23314243

• Earned a net profit
  of Rs 578.6 crore during FY 2005-06

• Whopping 105%
  increase in GSM subscriber base with 17% market share in Delhi and
  Mumbai

•  Fixed line
  subscriber base declined

• Broadband
  subscriber base grew to 211,935 during FY 2005-06, almost 40 times
  over the previous year

'IPTV services
will boost demand for fixed lines'

How did MTNL perform
during 2005-2006?

Whatever actions we had taken in 2003-04 and 2004-05, now has started
bearing fruits. I am hopeful that in the coming year, it will be much
better.

Our first achievement
during the last year was that in the most competitive markets of Delhi and
Mumbai, we have beaten all operators in terms of net additions of
customers in the mobile telephony space. We gave 10.6 lakh new connections
to our customers against our nearest rival Airtel, who gave 9.5 lakh.
Hutch gave 9 lakh connections. Our market share, which was 5%Â
in 2003-2004, has increased to almost 18%.

CMD RSP Sinha

Do you think you
failed in your broadband targets?

Broadband was the biggest success story for us. We started providing
broadband services on ADSL2 plus almost at the same time as in the US. We
were able to give better speed over a longer area. Our broadband
subscribers during 2005-2006 stood at 2.28 lakh. It is true that we did
not meet our targets. The main reason was the under-estimation of demand
on our part. We were giving 1,000 connections per day. The response to our
services was overwhelming and as a result, we fell short of CPEs which
caused delays in providing connections.

Being a PSU, we can't
buy products off the shelf as the private operators, and have to go
through a procurement process, which resulted in delays. It is very
unfortunate that we have a waiting list in Delhi and Mumbai. CPE shortage
has been taken care of and we hope that by July, we will clear the entire
waiting list. We not only succeeded but we exceeded the expectations of
the people.

What are your views
on landline surrender?

The surrender of landline phone is not a new phenomenon. Wherever the
monopoly has been taken away, there is always bound to be some surrender
of fixed line in order to have some diversity due to multiple options
available to consumers. The only issue was that whatever loss was taking
place in fixed line should have been compensated by GSM or CDMA customers.
But MTNL got the GSM license very late. So the lead period was available
to the private operators who were able to get the largest market share.

The fixed line
surrender has gone down. But if you need our broadband connection, you
also need fixed line connection.

What is the progress
on IPTV front?

I think there will be a huge demand for fixed line the moment we
launch our IPTV services. The technology we are trying to bring in is new.
IPTV throughout the world is working on MPEG2, which consumes larger
bandwidth.  However, the MPEG4
technology, which is still in the process of getting matured, is our
choice.  So we are ahead of
the US and other countries. We have tied up with content providers, and
are planning to launch the service in July.

What is the status
on 3G services?

The tender is almost on the verge of finalization. We are going for 2
mn lines each for Delhi and Mumbai, out of which 75,000 is for 3G. From
our side, we are ready but we are awaiting government allocation of 3G
spectrum.