NEW DELHI, INDIA: Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), India’s fastest-growing pan-India telecom service provider, announced the signing of a landmark ‘Master Services Agreement for Passive Infrastructure Sharing’ with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), becoming the first Indian private telecom operator to enter into an agreement of this nature.
The agreement, valid for 15 years, will be applicable to both Tata Teleservices and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) in all of India’s 22 telecom circles.
“This is a moment of pride for us, as we have become the first private telecom operator to enter into such a strategically important agreement with BSNL, one that will allow us to expand our telecom footprint across the country much more quickly,” Madhav Joshi, President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Tata Teleservices, said.
The agreement comes at a very strategic time for Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited (TTML), as both companies have been aggressively expanding their network presence on the CDMA side with Tata Indicom, while also rolling out GSM services under the TATA DOCOMO brand name.
“In the short space of just three months, we have already rolled out our GSM services in nine Circles—Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh and Haryana,” AG Rao, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Teleservices, said. “This agreement has the potential to not just speed up our network expansion and rollout process, but would also have a substantial impact in terms of reduced costs,” he added.
Under the terms of the agreement, TTSL and TTML will have access to thousands of BSNL towers all across the country.
Showing posts with label BSNL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BSNL. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
HCL-BSNL to work together on National Broadband Penetration program
BANGALORE, INDIA: One of India’s largest telecom companies, BSNL, and HCL Infosystems, announced that they will be working together on the National Broadband Penetration Program (NBPP), a nationwide initiative to accelerate IT proliferation in rural India.
The project aims to accelerate PC and broadband penetration by offering a complete solution and to create new markets in the interiors of the country.
The NBPP project, believed to be the largest government program to promote rural connectivity till date, aims to break through the affordability barrier.
The project aims to power the next million PC+ Broadband connections in untapped market space through the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) under DOT which has granted a subsidy to BSNL for providing wire line broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas.
USOF will be providing a subsidy of Rs. 4500/- per broadband connection that BSNL will be rolling out through their existing 27,789 rural and remote telephone exchanges.
“Today, the need to create a progressive environment of growth is more than ever before. Indian economy, in the past few years, has grown but the growth can be accelerated and made more inclusive by providing an impetus to PC and Broadband penetration in rural India. This project for BSNL is in line with our strategy for mass adoption of PC + Broadband to promote India’s GDP growth,” said Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd.
With this ambitious program, HCL and BSNL aim to address the significant untapped demand in rural markets by providing a complete solution to the customer This solution will be available to customer at a nominal payment of Rs. 2,250/- followed by Rs. 300/- per month for the PC and subsidized broadband package at Rs.99/- or Rs.150/- per month.
This program is seen as an initiative from Government of India and USOF to support inclusive growth. Different countries across the globe have adopted this model of partnering with IT companies to infuse PC-Broadband growth for national development. As India is poised for growth, this program will significantly contribute in ensuring sustained economic growth. There is a direct and favourable correlation to the number of Personal Computers (PCs) per inhabitant to the per capita GDP of the country.
A study shows that for country like China, the per capita GDP is expected to increase from $ 8,000 to $ 18,000 as PC penetration increases from 5 percent to 24 percent from 2005 to 2015. Countries like Korea, Singapore and Sweden attribute their inclusive economic growth over the past decade greatly to the increased PC & broadband penetration.
“This is indeed the one of the major initiatives to bridge the digital divide by offering PC + Broadband at a subsidized rates to our customers. We are delighted to partner with HCL Infosystems for this nation wide program. The missing pie in PC and broadband proliferation was the affordability and service which are now being provided jointly by us and HCL, with support from USOF to increase desirability.” said Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL.
Complementing BSNLs need for a partner with extensive rural reach, experience and servicing ability, HCL Infosystems continues to lay more emphasis on creating appropriate programs and solutions for the Indian rural markets. Committed to bridge the ‘Digital Divide’ in the country HCL has been one of the pioneers in India to create special ICT products and solutions for the rural markets.
Over the years, HCL has innovated and developed various products and solutions to address the rural market in India including rural PCs that work on car batteries, special products for milk co-operatives in rural India, packages for education and literacy in rural India, the development of special software and hardware products for addressing financial inclusion of persons who currently do not use the banking system in rural India, programs for panchayat computerisation and support for community service centres through government schemes and the ITC e-Chaupal program.
Speaking on the occasion, Ajay Bhattacharya, USOF (Administrator) commented that the steps taken by BSNL are in the right direction of digitalizing India with a special emphasis on rural India. USOF desires that more such partnerships should be developed in future so that benefits of broadband should reach every citizen of the country.
Providing strength to NBPP program will be HCL's innovative service & support initiative, ‘HCL TOUCH’, which is delivered through one of India’s largest IT service and support networks. HCL Touch has a network that reaches out to over 4,000 towns and delivers services in 11 regional languages. The ‘HCL Touch’ network consists of 14 remote support centers, 505 service offices, 390 ware houses and 150 repair centers.
Rajesh Wadhwa, who heads Fixed Access Business in BSNL expressed his happiness on the program. He stressed that field staff must come up to the expectation of the overall objective of the project. He told that this initiative will prove to be a major milestone in taking country to next level of civilization.
Speaking on the occasion, Intel South Asia’s Managing Director of the Sales and Marketing Group, R. Sivakumar said: “Intel has been committed to delivering the technology needed to connect Indians to the Internet and enabling them to leverage its unlimited potential. Affordable access to information via broadband internet is the key for India’s competitiveness in today’s global economy.
"The National Broadband Penetration Program is an excellent step forward and brings access of 21st century learning skills and IT business tools and opportunities to our population base. Intel is pleased to partner with HCL and BSNL on the National Broadband Penetration Program that aims to accelerate PC and broadband penetration.”
The project aims to accelerate PC and broadband penetration by offering a complete solution and to create new markets in the interiors of the country.
The NBPP project, believed to be the largest government program to promote rural connectivity till date, aims to break through the affordability barrier.
The project aims to power the next million PC+ Broadband connections in untapped market space through the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) under DOT which has granted a subsidy to BSNL for providing wire line broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas.
USOF will be providing a subsidy of Rs. 4500/- per broadband connection that BSNL will be rolling out through their existing 27,789 rural and remote telephone exchanges.
“Today, the need to create a progressive environment of growth is more than ever before. Indian economy, in the past few years, has grown but the growth can be accelerated and made more inclusive by providing an impetus to PC and Broadband penetration in rural India. This project for BSNL is in line with our strategy for mass adoption of PC + Broadband to promote India’s GDP growth,” said Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd.
With this ambitious program, HCL and BSNL aim to address the significant untapped demand in rural markets by providing a complete solution to the customer This solution will be available to customer at a nominal payment of Rs. 2,250/- followed by Rs. 300/- per month for the PC and subsidized broadband package at Rs.99/- or Rs.150/- per month.
This program is seen as an initiative from Government of India and USOF to support inclusive growth. Different countries across the globe have adopted this model of partnering with IT companies to infuse PC-Broadband growth for national development. As India is poised for growth, this program will significantly contribute in ensuring sustained economic growth. There is a direct and favourable correlation to the number of Personal Computers (PCs) per inhabitant to the per capita GDP of the country.
A study shows that for country like China, the per capita GDP is expected to increase from $ 8,000 to $ 18,000 as PC penetration increases from 5 percent to 24 percent from 2005 to 2015. Countries like Korea, Singapore and Sweden attribute their inclusive economic growth over the past decade greatly to the increased PC & broadband penetration.
“This is indeed the one of the major initiatives to bridge the digital divide by offering PC + Broadband at a subsidized rates to our customers. We are delighted to partner with HCL Infosystems for this nation wide program. The missing pie in PC and broadband proliferation was the affordability and service which are now being provided jointly by us and HCL, with support from USOF to increase desirability.” said Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL.
Complementing BSNLs need for a partner with extensive rural reach, experience and servicing ability, HCL Infosystems continues to lay more emphasis on creating appropriate programs and solutions for the Indian rural markets. Committed to bridge the ‘Digital Divide’ in the country HCL has been one of the pioneers in India to create special ICT products and solutions for the rural markets.
Over the years, HCL has innovated and developed various products and solutions to address the rural market in India including rural PCs that work on car batteries, special products for milk co-operatives in rural India, packages for education and literacy in rural India, the development of special software and hardware products for addressing financial inclusion of persons who currently do not use the banking system in rural India, programs for panchayat computerisation and support for community service centres through government schemes and the ITC e-Chaupal program.
Speaking on the occasion, Ajay Bhattacharya, USOF (Administrator) commented that the steps taken by BSNL are in the right direction of digitalizing India with a special emphasis on rural India. USOF desires that more such partnerships should be developed in future so that benefits of broadband should reach every citizen of the country.
Providing strength to NBPP program will be HCL's innovative service & support initiative, ‘HCL TOUCH’, which is delivered through one of India’s largest IT service and support networks. HCL Touch has a network that reaches out to over 4,000 towns and delivers services in 11 regional languages. The ‘HCL Touch’ network consists of 14 remote support centers, 505 service offices, 390 ware houses and 150 repair centers.
Rajesh Wadhwa, who heads Fixed Access Business in BSNL expressed his happiness on the program. He stressed that field staff must come up to the expectation of the overall objective of the project. He told that this initiative will prove to be a major milestone in taking country to next level of civilization.
Speaking on the occasion, Intel South Asia’s Managing Director of the Sales and Marketing Group, R. Sivakumar said: “Intel has been committed to delivering the technology needed to connect Indians to the Internet and enabling them to leverage its unlimited potential. Affordable access to information via broadband internet is the key for India’s competitiveness in today’s global economy.
"The National Broadband Penetration Program is an excellent step forward and brings access of 21st century learning skills and IT business tools and opportunities to our population base. Intel is pleased to partner with HCL and BSNL on the National Broadband Penetration Program that aims to accelerate PC and broadband penetration.”
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Can BSNL and MTNL be turned around?
Amit Gupta, Principal Analyst, Ovum
UK: While the Indian telecom industry is experiencing high growth and private sector operators are posting impressive results, performance of the two state owned operators -– namely, BSNL and MTNL -– continues to decline.
As state owned entities, these two operators get preferential treatment from the government. Nevertheless, they fail to take advantage of such a treatment. One of the recent examples is dismal uptake of 3G service launched by these two, despite being the only operators in India with 3G spectrum.
Speculations around divestment in these companies and their merger have been rife for many years. While the current government has not expressed any intention to further divest in MTNL, it has renewed its efforts to divest 10% stake in BSNL. The government plans to explore a possibility of merging BSNL and MTNL after divestment in the former is completed.
BSNL’s management and the government believe that divestment will help the company raise capital required for its long-term growth and turn around. BSNL has also laid-out a strategy to reverse the company’s declining performance. However, cure of these companies’ malaise require different medicine.
Political intervention, a bureaucratic culture and pre-liberalization mindset are the root causes for BSNL and MTNL’s poor performance. The inadequacy of a divestment solution to address these weaknesses is evidenced in the case of MTNL, which has been a listed company for many years but nonetheless continues to see declining performance.
Potential investors would need control over management and decision-making in order to turn these companies around, which is impossible while the government owns a majority stake.
Privatization will provide potential investors the required control. Even with such a control, the challenge to transform BSNL and MTNL from state owned sick companies into customer centric service providers will be daunting. Due to the size and complexity of these companies, it won’t be possible for an outsider to manage change without the cooperation of the existing employees.
At the same time, investors will have to cut the flab from a bloated workforce. Employees of these companies are likely to be strongly entrenched with a keen sense of internal loyalty, so achieving both objectives will require time as well as efforts.
Despite these challenges, privatization is the only economically viable option. Competition in the Indian telecom industry will become more intense. With their culture and mindset, along with the political baggage they come with, BSNL and MTNL as state-owned companies cannot face such a competition.
The realities of coalition politics will prohibit the Indian government from taking the radical and unpopular decision of privatizing these companies. However, if political will is there, it is still possible to save these companies from their eventual demise.
UK: While the Indian telecom industry is experiencing high growth and private sector operators are posting impressive results, performance of the two state owned operators -– namely, BSNL and MTNL -– continues to decline.
As state owned entities, these two operators get preferential treatment from the government. Nevertheless, they fail to take advantage of such a treatment. One of the recent examples is dismal uptake of 3G service launched by these two, despite being the only operators in India with 3G spectrum.
Speculations around divestment in these companies and their merger have been rife for many years. While the current government has not expressed any intention to further divest in MTNL, it has renewed its efforts to divest 10% stake in BSNL. The government plans to explore a possibility of merging BSNL and MTNL after divestment in the former is completed.
BSNL’s management and the government believe that divestment will help the company raise capital required for its long-term growth and turn around. BSNL has also laid-out a strategy to reverse the company’s declining performance. However, cure of these companies’ malaise require different medicine.
Political intervention, a bureaucratic culture and pre-liberalization mindset are the root causes for BSNL and MTNL’s poor performance. The inadequacy of a divestment solution to address these weaknesses is evidenced in the case of MTNL, which has been a listed company for many years but nonetheless continues to see declining performance.
Potential investors would need control over management and decision-making in order to turn these companies around, which is impossible while the government owns a majority stake.
Privatization will provide potential investors the required control. Even with such a control, the challenge to transform BSNL and MTNL from state owned sick companies into customer centric service providers will be daunting. Due to the size and complexity of these companies, it won’t be possible for an outsider to manage change without the cooperation of the existing employees.
At the same time, investors will have to cut the flab from a bloated workforce. Employees of these companies are likely to be strongly entrenched with a keen sense of internal loyalty, so achieving both objectives will require time as well as efforts.
Despite these challenges, privatization is the only economically viable option. Competition in the Indian telecom industry will become more intense. With their culture and mindset, along with the political baggage they come with, BSNL and MTNL as state-owned companies cannot face such a competition.
The realities of coalition politics will prohibit the Indian government from taking the radical and unpopular decision of privatizing these companies. However, if political will is there, it is still possible to save these companies from their eventual demise.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Harris Stratex Networks to supply India's first urban mobile WiMAX network
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, USA: Harris Stratex Networks Inc., a leading provider of wireless solutions that enable the evolution of next-generation fixed and mobile broadband networks, has signed a contract with ICOMM, one of India's leading groups in the field of telecom, power transmission and distribution EPC, solar and infrastructure, to supply, install, commission and maintain an IEEE 802.16e mobile WiMAX network for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).
Under the multi-year contract, Harris Stratex will supply its StarMAX WiMAX solution to extend BSNL's public wireless access network to provide high-speed wireless mobility services to enterprise and retail customers in urban areas across the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Under the agreement, Harris Stratex will supply its StarMAX WiMAX Forum Certified(TM) IEEE 802.16e-2005 base stations, along with solutions for access services network (ASN) gateway; home agent; authentication, authorization and accounting; and network management system. Customer premises equipment and subscriber units will be supplied by ICOMM, along with deployment and project management services.
Formed in 2000, BSNL is the world's seventh-largest telecommunications company and provides a comprehensive range of telecom services to 7,330 cities and towns, and 550,000 villages across India.
In 2008, the government of India awarded BSNL 20MHz of spectrum in the 2.5GHz band, enabling the operator to introduce mobile WiMAX to expand the reach of its broadband network to deliver services to India's un-served and under-served communities, including rural and urban areas.
The contract award to ICOMM and Harris Stratex will enable broadband services to be deployed throughout the state of Kerala, India's fourth largest telecom market by revenue with a population of more than 35 million people in an area of 38,000 square kilometers. This mobile WiMAX rollout by BSNL will represent one of the largest deployments of this technology in the world.
"We are excited to work with Harris Stratex as a part of BSNL's landmark WiMAX network deployment. By combining ICOMM's infrastructure build-out expertise with Harris Stratex' sophisticated end-to-end 802.16e WiMAX solutions and top-tier customer focus, we will enable BSNL to provide its broadband users highly-reliable high-speed mobile broadband services," said C.S. Rao, chairman, ICOMM.
"We greatly appreciate BSNL's strategic leadership in India and its efforts to help the government reach its target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, and are extremely proud to be a part of this very important undertaking," said Harald Braun, president and CEO, Harris Stratex. "We are thrilled to work with ICOMM to deploy one of the world's largest, most sophisticated 4G WiMAX networks for BSNL."
The StarMAX platform is the result of the March 2, 2009 acquisition of Telsima Corporation by Harris Stratex Networks and includes an extensive portfolio of IEEE 802.16d-2004 and 16e-2005 compatible base stations, fixed and mobile subscriber devices, ASN gateway solutions, home agent and network management tools.
The StarMAX product is part of Harris Stratex' complete end-to-end broadband network portfolio, which also includes high-speed IP wireless backhaul, advanced core network elements, umbrella network management and service assurance, and complete turnkey services from network design and deployment, to full network operations center managed network services.
Under the multi-year contract, Harris Stratex will supply its StarMAX WiMAX solution to extend BSNL's public wireless access network to provide high-speed wireless mobility services to enterprise and retail customers in urban areas across the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Under the agreement, Harris Stratex will supply its StarMAX WiMAX Forum Certified(TM) IEEE 802.16e-2005 base stations, along with solutions for access services network (ASN) gateway; home agent; authentication, authorization and accounting; and network management system. Customer premises equipment and subscriber units will be supplied by ICOMM, along with deployment and project management services.
Formed in 2000, BSNL is the world's seventh-largest telecommunications company and provides a comprehensive range of telecom services to 7,330 cities and towns, and 550,000 villages across India.
In 2008, the government of India awarded BSNL 20MHz of spectrum in the 2.5GHz band, enabling the operator to introduce mobile WiMAX to expand the reach of its broadband network to deliver services to India's un-served and under-served communities, including rural and urban areas.
The contract award to ICOMM and Harris Stratex will enable broadband services to be deployed throughout the state of Kerala, India's fourth largest telecom market by revenue with a population of more than 35 million people in an area of 38,000 square kilometers. This mobile WiMAX rollout by BSNL will represent one of the largest deployments of this technology in the world.
"We are excited to work with Harris Stratex as a part of BSNL's landmark WiMAX network deployment. By combining ICOMM's infrastructure build-out expertise with Harris Stratex' sophisticated end-to-end 802.16e WiMAX solutions and top-tier customer focus, we will enable BSNL to provide its broadband users highly-reliable high-speed mobile broadband services," said C.S. Rao, chairman, ICOMM.
"We greatly appreciate BSNL's strategic leadership in India and its efforts to help the government reach its target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, and are extremely proud to be a part of this very important undertaking," said Harald Braun, president and CEO, Harris Stratex. "We are thrilled to work with ICOMM to deploy one of the world's largest, most sophisticated 4G WiMAX networks for BSNL."
The StarMAX platform is the result of the March 2, 2009 acquisition of Telsima Corporation by Harris Stratex Networks and includes an extensive portfolio of IEEE 802.16d-2004 and 16e-2005 compatible base stations, fixed and mobile subscriber devices, ASN gateway solutions, home agent and network management tools.
The StarMAX product is part of Harris Stratex' complete end-to-end broadband network portfolio, which also includes high-speed IP wireless backhaul, advanced core network elements, umbrella network management and service assurance, and complete turnkey services from network design and deployment, to full network operations center managed network services.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sterlite wins Rs. 372 crore BSNL contract
PUNE, INDIA: Sterlite Technologies Ltd, a leading global provider of transmission solutions today announced that it has won a contract from BSNL, valued at Rs 372 crores ($ 77 million), for enabling a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Network based on Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology.
Sterlite was awarded a major share of the total outlay of project, amongst competition from global players. Sterlite has streamlined its efforts to ensure that the contract is executed within FY10.
BSNL plans to implement similar FTTH networks at 25 cities across India by Year 2012, which would impact 2 million subscribers. This would provide subscribers access to never-experienced bandwidth and speeds (in excess of 100 Mb/s) as well as multitude of applications ranging from utility applications such as High-Definition Video Conferencing or entertainment applications as High-Speed Gaming.
The current phase of the FTTH network would be capable of providing high-speed internet, IPTV solutions, VoIP, and other Value Added Services to about 500,000 subscribers. BSNL, one of the largest telecom service providers globally, will be the first telco in the country to deploy commercial scale Fiber-to-the-Home network.
At the recent OFC/NFOEC 2009 in San Diego, California, Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, indicated that up to 5 percent of all Indian households could have FTTH by 2011 and IPTV would be one of the key drivers for uptake of FTTH.
Dr. Anand Agarwal, CEO & Director - Sterlite Technologies says: “India is at the cross-roads in telecommunication technology, with networks being rolled out for 3G, Wimax, NGN (Next Generation Networks) and FTTH.
"We believe FTTH will offer subscribers limitless possibilities by serving the requirements of bandwidth-hungry applications and this would revolutionize the way subscribers work, live and play. We commend BSNL’s relentless efforts in putting India on the telecom map of the world and we are honored to be chosen as a partner for this project.”
Sterlite was awarded a major share of the total outlay of project, amongst competition from global players. Sterlite has streamlined its efforts to ensure that the contract is executed within FY10.
BSNL plans to implement similar FTTH networks at 25 cities across India by Year 2012, which would impact 2 million subscribers. This would provide subscribers access to never-experienced bandwidth and speeds (in excess of 100 Mb/s) as well as multitude of applications ranging from utility applications such as High-Definition Video Conferencing or entertainment applications as High-Speed Gaming.
The current phase of the FTTH network would be capable of providing high-speed internet, IPTV solutions, VoIP, and other Value Added Services to about 500,000 subscribers. BSNL, one of the largest telecom service providers globally, will be the first telco in the country to deploy commercial scale Fiber-to-the-Home network.
At the recent OFC/NFOEC 2009 in San Diego, California, Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, indicated that up to 5 percent of all Indian households could have FTTH by 2011 and IPTV would be one of the key drivers for uptake of FTTH.
Dr. Anand Agarwal, CEO & Director - Sterlite Technologies says: “India is at the cross-roads in telecommunication technology, with networks being rolled out for 3G, Wimax, NGN (Next Generation Networks) and FTTH.
"We believe FTTH will offer subscribers limitless possibilities by serving the requirements of bandwidth-hungry applications and this would revolutionize the way subscribers work, live and play. We commend BSNL’s relentless efforts in putting India on the telecom map of the world and we are honored to be chosen as a partner for this project.”
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