MTNL plans Rs 1,500cr expansion

Buoyed by the success of its broadband services in New Delhi and Mumbai, MTNL has lined up Rs 1,500 crore investment to expand GSM and broadband operations.

"We will expand broadband capacity by 10 lakh connection in Delhi and Mumbai. The capacity will be scalable to 20 lakh. We are also planning a major expansion of our GSM mobile network, especially in Mumbai," R S P Sinha, chairman and managing director, MTNL, told PTI in an interview.

The telecom operator would be investing Rs 1,500 crore in 2008, Sinha said, adding the amount could go up by another Rs 200 crore depending upon the capacity requirement.

MTNL is facing problems in scaling up GSM services in Mumbai as capacity could not be added in time by ITI, which got the contract under reservation quota.

Sinha said MTNL has planned to add 10 lakh GSM subscriber capacity in Mumbai, and till the networks were put in place, the company has decided to divert some of the base terminal stations (BTS) from Delhi to Mumbai.