As per the media reports, Friday saw an invitation being extended by State-owned telco MTNL to global players for bids for the setting up and running of its WiMax operations in Delhi and Mumbai, on a franchisee basis for a six-year period.

A revenue sharing agreement would be entered in by MTNL with successful bidders.

The contract, which can be terminated if the franchisee partner does not meet the prescribed targets, will be reviewed every two years.

It was during the last month that bids for running its 3G operations in Delhi and Mumbai for a 10-year period were invited by MTNL, that too as a revenue-sharing franchisee model.

"The successful bidder will have to provide fully converged broadband data and voice services such as internet and VPN, and support services such as cell support video conferencing, IP multicast, backhaul to Wi-Fi and wireless leased lines," specified the WiMax tender posted on MTNL's website late Friday night.

Furthermore, they will also have to provide both pre-paid and post-paid WiMax services, apart from roping in 5,00,000 customers over a 5-year period. Also, yearly targets have been set by MTNL.

The expression of interest (EoI) for the bids said: "The bidder shall jointly work with MTNL for working out strategies for advertising, marketing and promoting the broadband services, which shall carried out under the MTNL brand. Sales and marketing and verification of customer's bonafide will be the prime responsibility of the bidder."