Delay in billing system hits BSNL plans

Delay in installation of billing system has hit Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) plans to increase mobile capacity in the western zone to around five million lines.

Also, it has pushed the company to the fourth slot, which is behind private players such as Idea Cellular, Hutch and Airtel.

BSNL had given the contract for supply of a billing instrument to ITI in September 2005. ITI sub contracted it to a consortium headed by Wipro Infotech.

The consortium included Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems, which were supposed to provide hardware and networking equipment respectively to ITI.

Wipro was slated to be systems integrator, said sources close to the deal. The order was placed by BSNL with ITI on the basis of the reserved category. The system was to be installed by March 31, 2006.

Sources said delayed distribution of contracts by ITI caused the situation to arise.

ITI had placed the order with Wipro Infotech in April 2006, after prolonged negotiations with the ministry of telecommunications. This delayed the process further, with BSNL believing it would take another couple of months for the system to be installed, said a source.

Wipro Infotech was authorised by both Cisco Systems and Sun Microsystems to quote, supply and support their solutions for this project in BSNL West zone.

Last year, Principal General Manager (Mobile operations) R K Agarwal had forecast about 1.3 million connections to be provided in Maharashtra. This was part of the overall capacity expansion of 5 million lines proposed to be undertaken by BSNL in the west zone.