Sanjay Singh / New Delhi
While state-run telecom company, BSNL has initiated for procuring 4G equipment from international telecom equipment manufacturers in order to keep pace with private telecom companies and stay afloat in the market-place, the Ministry of Commerce has initiated for a scrutiny after an industry body raised concerns.
The concern comes from the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) which has alleged that the BSNL’s tender conditions flouted procurement rules under the ‘Make in India’ policy, and was heavily tilted towards multinational companies and against the domestic telecom equipment manufacturers. TEPC is an industry association representing domestic telecom equipment makers.
BSNL has been trying to compete with private telcos which have already developed their 4G network around 2014-15, while BSNL has been offering mobile services on 2G and 3G networks. BSNL had got Rs 70,000 crore as a relief package late last year, following which it has been working on its revival plan, a crucial project for the company, as it is the only telecom company in India not having 4G services.
The BSNL had floated new tender on March 23, this year and the contract is worth Rs 9,000 crore to procure 4G equipment. This included upgrading of over 50,000 cell sites pan India, which would help BSNL offer its subscriber access to high-speed Internet. BSNL has been losing out badly by subscriber, due to unavailability of 4G services, which are available with private telcos.
BSNL has been losing out to private telcos since 2007-08. BSNL which had over 33 million subscribers then and was way above private telcos then had announced plans to increase its network capacity by 94 million new lines with an investment of around $10 billion. It was then world’s largest telecom equipment contract. However with allegations of irregularities in the tendering process , the BSNL project took a big hit and since then it has been going down.