Copying and distributing are prohibited without permission of the publisher
MTNL seeks African managed service deals
18 May 2012
Indian state-owned MTNL tells Mauritius offshoot to look for managed services contracts in Africa
Read more:
MTNL
MTML
Africa
managed services
India
Mauritius
Indian state-owned operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam — or MTNL — is planning to look for long-term managed services agreements with African mobile operators, according to local reports.
The contracts will be operated through MTML, the company’s subsidiary on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
The operator says it will offer network management services, upgrade services, planning and maintenance for GSM firms in African markets.
This effort will be MTNL’s second effort to enter Africa. In 2006, it failed to get a mobile licence in Kenya and in 2007 failed in an attempt to buy a controlling share in Telkom Kenya, a company now controlled by France Telecom-Orange.
A senior — but unnamed — MTNL executive told the Economic Times in India that it will send 100 engineers and consultants to Mauritius for these managed services deals, which it expects to be worth about $20 million a year each.
Another unnamed MTNL executive told the newspaper: “The MTNL board has taken a decision to dedicate people resources to enter the lucrative managed services space in key African markets. We are in talks with some of the biggest telcos in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Djibouti to offer managed services,” said who declined to name these companies.”
The executive added: “We don't have money to roll out greenfield networks in Africa. The decision to get into managed services is aimed at prising open new revenue streams since MTNL has the necessary engineering resources to manage international mobile networks.”
MTNL’s Mauritius unit runs GSM and CDMA networks and will introduce 3G services by November 2012. GTB
More from GTB
MTNL looks for 2G and 3G contract bids 11 Jan 2012
MTNL raises $108.7m to repay debt 25 Aug 2011
MTNL to offer 3G roaming to rivals 08 Aug 2011
MTNL eyes 51% stake in TelOne 20 Jul 2011