Cell operators jostle for Maharashtra govt staff deal

The state government has sought competitive quotations from mobile majors Reliance Infocom, BPL, Airtel, BSNL, MTNL and Tata Indicom for offering mobile connections to 5000 state-employed officers based in Mumbai and Pune districts, on the parameters of monthly rentals, outgoing calls between mobile to mobiles within the same network, outgoing calls to land lines, wireless lines, STD and roaming charges.

Confirming this a senior government official said, "Quotations were already received from all these mobile companies by May 20, 2005, except Tata Indicom. However, thereafter the general tariff structures of mobile telephony has witnessed a downward revision. So we have asked these mobile companies to submit fresh quotations (read lower rates than already offered)."

"While the first batch of quotations was being scrutinised, a general downward revision was announced as well as the announcement of all calls within Maharashtra made from Mumbai becoming local calls. Hence, fresh quotations have been called for," the official said.

The Maharashtra government has a 13 lakh workforce that is being eyed by several private mobile phone companies as well as government run BSNL and MTNL.

If the current process for the 5,000 connections being sought is successfully carried out, the state government may look to extend the scheme to all the remaining 95,000 officers in the state, as well as other categories of employees.