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MTNL to launch cellular services by month end

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

NEW DELHI: The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) will launch GSM mobile services in the two metros of Delhi and Mumbai by the end of January under the brand name Dolphin. The new mobile phone service will have a capacity of one-lakh connections each in the two metros in the initial phases. However, the service will be expanded in several phases to cater to the increasing demand. It will not be mandatory for MTNL customers to buy handsets from the company as is the case now with its CDMA service.

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Customers can buy a SIM card, which could be pre-paid or post-paid from MTNL, the rates of which would be announced after approval from TRAI.

Meanwhile, the company has announced a couple of new initiatives: an online Internet account renewal package, a scratch-off card to renew Internet account and an email service which will be accessible from the ISP. The MTNL Internet customer can check his mailbox using full-featured mail interface in any part of the world. Earlier customers could access their mails only from Mumbai and Delhi. The customer can use any local Internet service to log on to the MTNL site and access mail. The service can be accessed from the URL, http://internet.mtnl.net.in.

The scratch-off card is expected to save the trouble of filling up a form for the renewal of an Internet account. MTNL account-holders can simply purchase the card from one of the Sanchar Haats, which will have a unique 20-digit number, which has to be keyed in for renewal. Till now the user had to buy a start-up kit which means that the old e-mail address of the user would no longer be used and they had to be given a new e-mail ID. MTNL has 19,000 Internet subscribers in Delhi and 26,000 Internet subscribers in Mumbai. MTNL is also in the process of acquiring more bandwidth from bandwidth providers directly in USA to expand its Internet operations.

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