BSNL 4G tender witnesses peculiar developments

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is planning to start providing 4G services throughout the country. The telco is looking for a company that can carry its tender and deploy all the necessary equipment that it can leverage to offer a seamless 4G experience to its customers. Certainly, the government does not want multinational or foreign companies to be taking part in this tender since it would betray its vision of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. As per an ET Telecom report, three companies have claimed that their 4G core technology is completely indigenous — more details on the story ahead.

One of the most interesting developments in the recently held BSNL meeting for its 4G core was the claim made by Mavenir. For the unaware, Mavenir is a Texas-based OpenRAN major company which said its 4G core is completely indigenous. The meeting was attended by all the home-bred companies and foreign companies interested in being part of the 4G journey of BSNL.

Mavenir Systems Private Limited is a registered subsidiary in India, and it is claiming that its 4G core offering is indigenous. But another interesting thing is that the company did not provide any further details about it. It said that it would prove that its equipment and technology are indigenous when the right time comes.

However, one of the executives sitting at the meeting said that if the government accepts the offering of Mavenir, it would mean not siding with the vision of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. The executive further said that the 4G core tender should go to an Indian company only.

A Mavenir spokesperson, on the other hand, said that the company is looking to contribute to the Atma Nirbhar Bharat mission of India. But the spokesperson didn’t say anything about how the company’s equipment is indigenous.

PertSol, a telecommunications-company and government’s C-DOT (The Centre for Development of Telematics) were also part of the meeting. They also claimed that they could provide indigenous 4G core to BSNL’s network.

PertSol claimed that it has 100% in-house developed core for 4G LTE services to provide to BSNL. The company has also said that it can offer IMS (VoLTE) services and complete packet core stack including remote connections, lawful interceptions solutions, and location-based services.

Many companies are running to acquire the 4G tender of BSNL. Thus, it will be interesting to see which company can finally bag the tender from the government. Telecom Talk