State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) will invite fresh bids to outsource its 3G network in Mumbai and Delhi by next month.
“We are planning to come up with a fresh tender by June,” Kuldeep Singh, chairman and managing director of MTNL, told reporters here.
Last year, MTNL had shortlisted Virgin Mobile and Spice Group through a global tender to hand over the management and marketing of 3G network in its service areas. However, the tender was scrapped due to some regulatory concerns.
“We have not sought any exemption from the government on payment of 3G spectrum fee. We have enough cash reserves. As of now, we have not decided on the mode of payment though,” Singh said. It has a cash reserve of Rs 5,000 crore.
MTNL has to pay about Rs 6,534 crore to the government as 3G spectrum fee by May 31. It has about 4 lakh 3G users.