MTNL eyes stake in Chinese firm

INDIA INC SHOPS ABROAD

Also in race for acquiring a telecom licence in Kenya.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today said it was eyeing a minority stake in a Chinese telecom company.

MTNL Chairman and Managing Director RSP Sinha said the company had already initiated the move but refused to give details. He said the Chinese company had full-fledged telephony operations in four provinces.

MTNL is also in the race for acquiring a telecom licence in Kenya.

The company holds a 26.8 per cent stake in United Telecom Ltd -- a joint venture among Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (26.6 per cent), Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (26.6 per cent) and Nepal Venture Private (20 per cent). United Telecom provides basic telephony services using the wireless technology in Nepal. The company's subscriber base is estimated at over 25,000.

MTNL also has a licence to offer fixed, cellular and international long-distance telecom services in Mauritius. The company intends to start the services shortly.

For its operations in Delhi and Mumbai, the public sector company may reduce broadband tariffs to Rs 199 a month from Rs 400 a month as part of its drive to gain more subscribers. An announcement on this is expected over the next few days.

'We have over 51,000 broadband customers in Delhi, and a total subscriber base of over 90,000. We are adding more than 500 subscribers every day. We plan to take this number to 2,000 a day, in Delhi and Mumbai,' Sinha said.

MTNL was also planning to offer free calls to subscribers using its fixed line, mobile and broadband services, company executives said.

The PSU today paid Rs 88.59 crore to the government towards the final 25 per cent dividend for 2004-05, taking the total dividend to 45 per cent. An interim dividend of 20 per cent was paid in February, 2005.