Revised MTNL 3G roaming and WiMax Franchise tender within a month

State-owned MTNL had invited bids from operators who could not get 3G spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, in the auction held last month, to provide roaming facility for their 3G subscribers in the PSU's network.
However main reason cited for not getting any response was that the prospective bidders wanted intra circle roaming to be included in the process.
The PSU had kept the minimum cost at Rs 70 crore per operator per metro. Of this Rs 50 crore would be fixed charges annually and Rs 20 crore would be for using the network for which the operator would be offered discount.
G P Sinha, deputy general manager, MTNL, said, "We will put up a revise tender within a month, this will include intra circle roaming also, some other conditions will also be relaxed.
He added, "There are many private service providers who have not got spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai, We have it and we want to improve it's utilisation, this will be a win win for all.”
MTNL hopes to earn annual revenue of up to Rs 300 crore, significant to make its 3G operations commercially viable, according to MTNL CMD Kuldeep Singh.
MTNL is also looking for a partner for its WiMax business.
It had earlier invited tenders to hire a WiMax franchise; however it received only one bidder. It is likely that tenders will be floated again with lower committed revenue conditions.
Sinha added, "We are looking at re-inviting bids for Wimax business also.
The only bidder which approached the telco for WiMax franchise was Prithvi Info Solutions, a Hyderabad based software firm.