Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) was set up on April1, 1986 by the Government of India to upgrade the quality of telecom services, expand the telecom network, introduce new services and to raise revenue for telecom development needs of India's key metros -- Delhi and Mumbai.

In the past 23 years, the company has taken rapid strides to emerge as India's leading and one of Asia's largest telecom operating companies. Besides having a strong financial base, MTNL has achieved a customer base of 8.06 million as on March 31, 2009.

The company has also been in the forefront of technology induction by converting 100% of its telephone exchange network into the state-of-the-art digital mode.

The Government of India currently holds 56.25% stake in the company.

Subsidiary

Millennium Telecom (MTL), incorporated on February 17, 2000, is a wholly owned subsidiary of MTNL that has been formed to do practically any type of telecom business with a focus on value added services. It intends to roll out a router-based packetised telecom network and create facilities like Application Development Centre, Internet Data Centre, STP facilities and payment gateway. Presently, it has a category ‘A’ ISP licence and is in the process of application development and rolling out the services.

Joint ventures

United Telecom Limited (UTL) MTNL has formed a joint venture company in Nepal by the name of United Telecom (UTL) in collaboration with Telecom Consultants India Limited (TCIL), Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) and NVPL (Nepal Ventures Private Limited, a Nepalese Company). The company is operational since October 10, 2001 for providing WLL based basic services in Nepal. In Nepal against the switching capacity of 50K, 21K telephone connections are working.  

Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML) MTNL has set up its 100% subsidiary -- Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius Limited (MTML) in Mauritius, for providing basic, mobile and international long distance services as 2nd operator in Mauritius. Necessary licenses have been obtained in January 2004. MTML has already started its ILD and CDMA based basic services in Mauritius. In Mauritius against the switching capacity of 50K, 8K telephone connections are working.   

MTNL-STPI IT Services Limited MTNL-STPI IT Services Ltd. is a 50:50 Joint Venture between Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, (MTNL). The JV formed in 2006 combines the STPI.s rich experience as an ISP and MTNL’s track record of being India’s leading telecom operating company to offer niche portal services to the Indian community. The JV was formed to realize one of the 10-point agenda of MoC&IT, which are of extreme importance to India for bringing about an all round economic development. The JV aims to provide exclusive data center services, messaging services, business application services to the identified sectors of economic activity and thereby also popularizing the .in domain in the networked community across the world.    

Millenium Telecom Limited (MTL) MTNL has restructured Millenium Telecom Limited (MTL) as a joint venture company of MTNL and BSNL with 50% and 50% equity participation respectively. The company will now be entering into new business stream of international long distance operations and will be executing a project of submarine cable system, both east and west from India.

Milestones

• 1911- Delhi telephones system with manual exchange was established.
• 1926 - Lothian exchange, the first automatic exchange was inaugurated.
• 1937 - Connaught Place exchange was opened.
• 1945 - First Manual Trunk exchange was opened.
• 1950 - Cantt exchange was opened.
• 1953 - Tiz Hazari Exchange was commissioned whereas Lothian exchange ceased working.
• 1955 - Secretariat exchange was commissioned
• 1958 - Karol Bagh exchange (SXS) was commissioned.
• 1961 - Jor Bagh exchange (SXS) was commissioned.
• 1961- Shahadara exchange (SXS) was commissioned.
• 1962- First STC service was opened at Agra.
• 1963 - Delhi Gate (27) exchange was commissioned.
• 1964 - Delhi telephone crosses 50,000 lines. 
• 1966 - Exchanges at Nangloi, Narela, Najafgarh, Bahadurgarh and Ballabgarh were opened.
• 1967 - Rajpath (38) exchange was commissioned.
• 1968 - 1st X-Bar exchange (KB58) was commissioned. X-Bar exchange (JB62) was commissioned.
• 1969 - Trunk automatic exchange (TAX) was commissioned.
• 1970 - Okhla X-Bar exchange was commissioned.
• 1972 - Idgah-I (51) Strowger exchange was opened.
• 1972 - X-Bar (31) Janpath-I exchange was commissioned. Delhi telephones crosses 1 lakh lines.
• 1973 - X-Bar (67) Chanakya Puri exchange was opened.
• 1975 - X-Bar Janpath-IV (34) exchange and X-Bar Shahdara East (20) exchange was commissioned.
• 1976 - Shakti Nagar (74) exchange, X-Bar exchange, Shahdara East (20) Extension-I, X-Bar exchange and Hauz Khas (65) X-Bar exchange were commissioned.
• 1977 - STD Service to Indore and Ambala were started
• 1978 - Rajouri Garden-I (59) X-Bar exchange, Hauz Khas -II (66) X-Bar exchange, Janpath-V (35) X-Bar exchange and Nehru Place (68) Strowger exchange were inaugurated.
• 1986 - Mahanagar Telephones Nigam Limited was incorporated.
• 1986 - First digital exchange world technology brought to India
• 1987 - Introduction of large scale push button telephone made dialling easier.
• 1988 - Phone Plus services multiplied benefits to telephone users.
• 1992 - Voice Mail Service was introduced.
• 1996 - ISDN services were introduced.
• 1997 - Wireless in Local loop was introduced
• 1999 -Internet services were introduced.
• 2000 - Millennium Telecom Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of MTNL was born.
• 2001 - The company launched GSM Cellular Mobile service under the brand name Dolphin. WLL Mobile services under the brand name Garuda was also launched. The company got  listed at New York stock exchange (NYSE). United telecom, MTNL entered into joint venture in Nepal, for providing WLL based services in Nepal became operational. CLI based Internet express services was introduced.
• 2002 - The company launched pre-paid GSM Mobile services under the brand name Trump. Email on PSTN lines were introduced under the brand name mtnlmail.
• 2003 - CDMA 1x 2000 Technology under the brand name Garuda 1-x was introduced. A pilot project of ADSL based Broadband and Virtual Phone services were introduced. Mahanagar Telephone Mauritius bagged second operator license in Mauritius.
• 2004 - The company expanded GSM & CDMA capacity by 800,000 lines each (total 1.6 million lines expanded) STD/ISD rates slashed by almost 60%. MTNL's subsidiary MTML obtained license to provide fixed, mobile and ILD services in Mauritius. Wi-Fi and digital certification services were launched. State of the art training centre ‘CETTM’ was commissioned.
• 2005 - The company launched broadband services under the brand name ‘TRI BAND’. It also floated tender for 1 million 3G GSM lines.