BSNL may delay wireless broadband services

http://www.itexaminer.com/bsnl-may-delay-wireless-broadband-services.aspx

By Harsha Pramod @ Thursday, December 04, 2008 8:32 AM



BSNL’s launch of wireless broadband services may be delayed.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has not yet opened the tenders invited from franchisees for launching mobile Wimax. The bids were scheduled for 4 December. However, the state-owned telco has not offered any explanation for the delay.

Nearly 28 companies, such as Alacatel-Lucent India, Motorola India, Moser Baer Industrial Infrastrucutre, Huawei, HCL Infosystems, Intel Technology India, Larsen & Toubro Infotech and TCIL had bought the tender documents at the cost of Rs 10,400 for each circle. Smaller and medium-sized players such as Soma Networks Software Engineering and Adino Telecom are also bidding.

Many small players have allegedly failed to meet the turnover criteria, and are proposing to associate with the bigger players to form a consortium since the BSNL norms permit this. Some are trying to exploit the situation by demanding a significant amount from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and IT services players towards this. Other small companies have already established special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with foreign telecom operators or their subsidiaries.

The bids were invited on a non-exclusive, revenue-sharing and license service area (LSA) basis. There is no restriction on the number of bids. Depending on infrastructure costs of tower and space rent, power and bandwidth being on the same level, the highest bidder will become a franchisee.