Nortel delays BSNL's $500 mn wireless rollout

Bharat Sanchar Nigam's (BSNL) ambitious $500 million digital wireless network rollout in eastern and western zones has been hit following a delay in the deployment of equipment and infrastructure by Nortel Network.

The telecom behemoth is unable to offer its services on the network that has a capacity of 7 million subscribers, even as the global communications solutions provider has overshot its mid-2005 deadline.

This is the second instance of a global company hampering BSNL's rollout plans, the earlier being IBM, which was "partly" responsible for the extension of its National Internet Backbone phase-II (NIB-II) project.

A source at BSNL said, "There is a delay on the part of Nortel and this is hampering BSNL's digital wireless network rollout in the two zones, with the company not being able to activate even one-third of the total 7 million subscriber capacity."

A majority of base transceiver stations (BTS) and other infrastructure required for the network, such as routers and switches among others, are yet to be installed, the source said.

BSNL had awarded the contract estimated at around $500 million to expand its GSM/GPRS digital wireless network in the east and south zones of India.

Under the project, which was to be completed by mid-2005, BSNL was to provide wireless services in West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand (East zone) and Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (south zone).

Nortel was to deploy a global system for mobile communications (GSM) and general packet radio service (GPRS) solution such as radio base stations, mobile switching centres (MSCs), intelligent networks (IN) and other related equipment.

This was to be used to provide wireless voice and data services with carrier-grade network reliability and involved setting up of over 11,000 cell sites, one of the largest in the world.

Nortel Networks vice-president Rajan Mehta confirmed that the project had overshot the deadline, but added that it was expected to be completed in the next couple of months.

"This is huge project, involving setting up of around 11,000 cell stations within 9 to 12 months. The enormity of the project can be gauged from the fact that it took over four years (1999 to 2003) for a similar number of base stations (11,000) to come up in the country," he said.

However, he also said that the services have been launched in major parts of all the four states in the south and three in the east.

Earlier, certain equipment related issues had resulted in the postponement of BSNL's NIB-II project that was to put India on par with advanced nations.

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ON HOLD

BSNL was planning $500 million digital wireless network in eastern and western zones

Equipment provider, Nortel Networks has already overshot its mid-2005 deadline