MTNL to expand overseas: Shourie

NEW DELHI: State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd plans to bid for overseas telecom projects in a bid to offset competitive pressures in the domestic telecoms sector, the communications minister said.

New Delhi-based Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) provides basic, cellular and limited mobility services and Internet access in the national capital and Bombay.

Arun Shourie told reporters MTNL was looking at telecom projects in Kenya and Myanmar, but gave no details. It is also bidding for a rural telephony contract in neighbouring Nepal where it already has a contract to provide basic services.

"MTNL is to become a very important flagship for India in acquiring telecoms contracts abroad," Shourie told reporters on the sidelines of an economic summit.

The company faces cut-throat competition from private rivals such as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, 16 percent owned by Singapore Telecommunications, and the Indian mobile unit of the Hutchison Whampoa group in New Delhi and Bombay, the country's most lucrative telecoms zones.

MTNL has already announced plans to bid for a license in the island nation of Mauritius and has bid for a controlling stake in a telecoms firm in Malawi.

Shourie said MTNL's cash reserves of around 18 billion rupees could be used for the overseas expansion.

When asked if the government planned to privatise MTNL, also listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Shourie said: "All of us feel it has to reinvent itself as a company."

MTNL and more than a dozen other telecoms services firms compete for a slice of the Indian telecoms sector, one of the fastest growing markets globally.

© Reuters