Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is likely to buy telecom equipment worth Rs 4 billion from Huawei to upgrade its landline network, say news reports.
In 2012, BSNL had floated a tender for procuring core and access equipment for upgrading its wireline network to a next-generation network (NGN). Following the tender, Huawei has emerged as the lowest bidder for the contract. It will be meeting about 60 per cent of BSNL’s total telecom equipment requirement for expanding its 4 million fixed lines. The rest of the equipment is likely to be supplied by ZTE and Hyderabad-based Prithvi Information Solutions Limited (PISL), which have emerged as the lowest bidder for the core and access packages of the NGN tender, respectively. However, as per the terms and conditions applicable in the tender, ZTE and PISL will have to match Huawei’s bid price in order to bag the remaining part of the contract.
As part of the NGN project, BSNL plans to provide value added services like video calling facility for its landline subscribers. The operator will be replacing about 40,000 of its fixed-line exchanges to offer voice, data and video signals to consumers through an upgraded network. BSNL plans to upgrade its landline network in two phases, starting 2013-14. In the first phase it would upgrade its wireline network across 500 cities. It will cover the remaining cities in the second phase.
