The Hindu : MTNL launches 3 new schemes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2003

National

National

MTNL launches 3 new schemes

By Our Staff Reporter

The Minister for Communications and IT, Arun Shourie, with the MTNL Chairman and Managing Director , Narendra Sharma, at the launch of ``Garuda 1 X'' CDMA mobile phone in New Delhi on Saturday. — Photo: S. Subramanium

NEW DELHI MAY 17. On the World Telecom Day today, the State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) announced the lowest-ever pulse rate of 12 seconds for its advanced Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) network — Garuda 1X — setting the stage for yet another price war in the mobile telephony market. It also launched two other ambitious services: Virtual Phone Card and ADSL Service — Netplus.

Launching the three services here, the Union Communications and IT Minister, Arun Shourie, said by upgrading their services, the two State-run telecom giants — the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and the MTNL — had shown true fighting spirit and resilience which would set the pace for growth of the telecom sector.

The Garuda service, under which one lakh new WLL connections and improved handsets would be released, would have four new plans.

The monthly rental for the "Standard Tariff" plan would be Rs. 200 where the outgoing charges would vary from 55 paise a minute to 75 paise a minute depending on the type of phone called. Besides, three other plans — Platinum, Gold and Silver— would cater to the needs of various users.

These users have been offered "free calls allowance". For the "Standard Tariff" plan, there is no such allowance.

The "Garuda 1X" is a state-of-the-art third generation network based on CDMA 2000 1X technology of Qualcomm.

The equipment had been supplied by Motorola. Interestingly, the technology would not only have superb network coverage but also provide users with high-speed data services for connection to Internet and voice services.

Besides, several value-added services are also being offered.

The "Virtual Phone Card" is for those customers who do not have a phone connection. Here a service user would be able to receive voice messages and fax, besides being able to make outgoing calls from any phone.

The cards would be priced at Rs. 300 and Rs.600 and a total of 10 messages could be received.

Under the "ADSL Service — Netplus", the subscribers would get the benefit of broadband Internet service, "always-on" Internet connectivity, great download speed, the greatest advantage being to be able to receive incoming calls during Internet access.

`No predatory pricing'

UNI reports:

The BSNL and the MTNL were not resorting to predatory pricing, Mr. Shourie said.

"If the BSNL and the MTNL lower their tariffs, they are charged with damaging other players' interests and if they raise their rates, political pressure is mounted on them, " he told mediapersons.

Earlier this week, the BSNL and the MTNL increased free calls on their fixed line services following an uproar in Parliament over the rise in tariff of basic phones. The BSNL had also raised the duration of calls from fixed to mobile phones.

While the BSNL increased free calls from 50 to 75 a month for rural subscribers and 30 to 50 for urban users, the MTNL raised them to 60 for all consumers from 30.

Review of penalty clauses

Mr. Shourie said the penalty clauses in the telecom licences would be reviewed to make them more stringent and it would be mandatory for companies to comply with them.

``Most of the companies (telecom service providers) get away without meeting the obligations as promised by them while signing licence agreement... this needs to be changed,'' he said.

The Department of Telecommunication and the Ministry of Communications and IT have already started reviewing the penalty clauses.

A final decision would be taken soon. ``I would also like to take a legal view on this matter,'' he said.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National