In this paper, we present the spectroscopic properties of Er(3+)-, Er(3+)/Yb(3+)- and Er(3+)/Tm(3+)/Yb(3+)-doped novel tellurite glasses. From the measured absorption spectra, Judd-Ofelt (JO) intensity parameters (Ω(2), Ω(4) and Ω(6)) have been evaluated for the Er(3+)-doped glass. With 980 nm excitation three strong upconversion emission bands centered at 505, 520 and 630 nm were observed for both Er(3+)- and Er(3+)/Yb(3+)-codoped glasses and the characteristic near-infrared emission bands were spectrally centered at 1.535 µm. The near-infrared spectra of Er(3+)- and Er(3+)/Yb(3+)-doped glasses have shown full width at half-maxima (FWHM) around 100 nm and 120 nm for the erbium [Formula: see text] transition, respectively. The measured maximum decay times of the [Formula: see text] transition (at wavelength 1.535 µm) are about 7.24 ms and 7.68 ms for 1.0Er(3+) and 1.0Er(3+)/ 2Yb(3+) (mol%)-codoped glasses, respectively. The maximum stimulated emission cross sections for the [Formula: see text] transition of Er(3+) and Er(3+)/Yb(3+) are 8.64 × 10(-21) and 6.78 × 10(-21) cm(2). From 1Er(3+)/ 1Tm(3+)/ 2Yb(3+) (mol%)-codoped glass, broad near-infrared emission bands centered at 1510 nm ([Formula: see text]) and 1637 nm ([Formula: see text]) with full width at half-maxima (FWHM) around 52 nm and 60 nm, respectively, were observed. These glasses with broad near-infrared emissions should have potential applications in tunable lasers and broadband optical amplification at low-loss telecommunication windows.