MTNL market share declines

NEW DELHI: The Government today told the Rajya Sabha that the market share of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has declined over the past few years.

Minister of State for Communications and IT Shakeel Ahmad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that due to “abolition of monopoly of MTNL” and near saturation point in “demand and landline phone” has resulted in the poor market share.

He added that the market share in 2003 was 61.35 per cent, which came down to 32.18 per cent in 2005.

Shakeel said that MTNL being the largest landline provider in Delhi and Mumbai has a legacy network which takes longer time to repair. However the PSU is modernising the network to reduce faults, providing innovative services at affordable cost and easing billing payment options.

He said that MTNL has invested Rs 21.22 crore till March 2005 to form wholly owned subsidiary company, Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Ltd (MTML) at Mauritius. MTML was registered in November 2003 to provide public switched services, public and mobile services and international long distance services.

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