www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has reportedly invited bids from international operators to run its 3G services. The telco managed to sign up around just 1,000 3G subscribers in its first six months of operation, it is thought that MTNL believes the involvement of an experienced 3G operator could help encourage uptake of the service.

MTNL has invited bids only from operators with prior experience of running 3G services, stating that companies must have overseen a subscriber base of at least one million 3G subscribers in two different countries. Interested companies are also required to have generated revenue in excess of INR1.5 billion (USD30.8 million) for the past two years.

For its part, MTNL has said it will ensure its 3G networks in both metros have capacity to support 100,000 subscribers within the first twelve months of signing any deal; capacity will be increased to 300,000 and 500,000 in the second and third year of the deal respectively. By September 9, the interested parties are anticipated to submit bids.