12 Indian and global firms show interest in rolling out 4G network for BSNL

We all know that BSNL has been trying its best to roll out its 4G network. It had also invited tenders in this matter.

The latest is that as many as 12 Indian and global firms have shown interest in rolling out the 4G network of BSNL. Prominent names among them include Tech Mahindra, TCS, Nokia, Ericsson and Tejas Networks. Even Chinese firms like Huawei and ZTE have expressed their intention to participate in the tender.The government will hold a pre-bid meeting next Monday to clear doubts of the prospective bidders.

According to sources, 12 companies had purchased the expression of interest (EoI) document issued by BSNL. The Indian companies include Tejas Network, ITI, Larsen & Toubro, Tech Mahindra, TCS, Sterlite Technologies and HFCL while the global ones are Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Nokia and Mavenir Systems.

Last week, BSNL had issued the EoI for rolling out its 4G services for which only Indian companies were to be allowed to provide the core network through a system integrator model. The EoI came more than six months after an earlier tender was cancelled because of complaints that it does not promote home grown companies.

According to top sources in the government, the fact that even global firms have shown keen interest in rolling out 4G network for BSNL proves that they are fine with the conditions. Earlier, the global firms had expressed their unhappiness around the condition of keeping the source code in an escrow account.

As per the EoI, the core shall be Indian and the IPR or licence/copyright for the source code of the software should be owned by an Indian company and it must have unrestricted, irrevocable access and licence to modify the source code and provide software support for all future versions of the software.

For the radio network like base tower stations (BTS), these global firms can bid but they need to deposit their source code in an escrow account.