Indian state-run telco BSNL has finally unveiled the winning companies that will operate Wimax services for it on a franchise basis in major urban areas.
Local firms - Teracom, Tech Solutions, Adishwar and Ampouls – will roll out Wimax services for BSNL in 16 urban circles.
Indian vendor Teracom, whose main technology partner is Cisco, will deploy Wimax services in eight circles, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, UP (East), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and the North East.
Ampouls will operate WiMax networks in Chennai, Haryana, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh in partnership with vendor Alvarion. Tech Solutions will rollout Wimax services in Orissa, UP (West) and Tamil Nadu using equipment from Chinese vendor ZTE, while Adishwar has won the tender for Kolkata.
The announcement will hopefully be second time lucky for BSNL, which canceled its original urban Wimax franchise tender in February after it emerged that several companies that were awarded franchises existed only on paper.
Big name vendors Soma Networks, Huawei and Gemini Communications all refrained from bidding for the latest franchises.
BSNL already has a supply deal with US firm Soma Networks in three rural circles, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. That contract has come under the spot light since it was awarded without a tender being conducted.
Huawei was also successful in the original urban network tender, but did not reapply in July 2009.
BSNL has been awarded spectrum for broadband wireless access services ahead of the country’s Wmax auctions, earmarked for late-February.
The Indian government is auctioning 20 MHz of spectrum at 2.3 GHz to private operators for BWA purposes.