Bsnl wimax service news updates – 5 companies bid for BSNL’s WiMAX Franchise

BSNL has received bids from five companies Adishwar India, Ampoules, Teracom Limited, E-mall Infotech and Tech solutions Ltd for rolling out WiMax-based broadband services in India on a franchisee model.

A BSNL executive confirmed that bids or expression of interest (EoI) for launching WiMAX services were received on Thursday from five companies. The 16 circles are Haryana, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, North East, Kolkata, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, J&K, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. Chennai and West Bengal. “The project will be on a revenue sharing basis and successful bidders must also do the marketing and provide after sale support,” the BSNL executive said.

While four of the bids have come from relatively unknown entities, telecom turnkey solutions provider Teracom backed by Cisco is the only company to have bid for maximum number of circles.

BSNL has had to cancel the tender twice before for want of serious bidders. But this time also, four of the five companies that have expressed interest in becoming the PSUs franchisee have no experience in the telecom sector.

E-Mall has tied up with Chinese vendor ZTE to bid for Karnataka, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Adishwar has roped in Israeli vendor for Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Kolkata.

BSNL’s existing franchisee partner Soma has not put in any bids.

Though some of the foreign players had looked at the project, they have kept away from bidding due to tough roll-out conditions set by the PSU.

Even though BSNL was given the spectrum almost a year back, it has not been able to take advantage of the lead it has over private players.

The PSU had divided its WiMax roll out into two parts. While the franchisee part got delayed due to the poor tender conditions, the rural part has seen some movement forward.

Chennai-based Gemini Communications, ZTE, US-based Harris Stratex and Alvarion had emerged as the four lowest bidders for the supply of 7,000 WiMax base stations to BSNL in the rural areas.

The project envisages covering 2.5 lakh blocks across the country whereby BSNL will set up Common Service Centres.

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