The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is looking to invite bids from cellcos, fixed-line telcos and ISPs to roll out wireless broadband in rural areas of the country this month.
Only one operator per circle will be allowed to roll out a network, but…
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is looking to invite bids from cellcos, fixed-line telcos and ISPs to roll out wireless broadband in rural areas of the country this month.
Only one operator per circle will be allowed to roll out a network, but a second slot will be reserved for state-owned BSNL. The latter will reportedly have to match the price offered by the other bidder in each circle.
BSNL received a US$522m grant from the government in early December to continue developing WiMax in rural areas.
This came a month after BSNL complained to the DoT that it could not continue rolling out rural internet services on a loss-making/cost-neutral basis without government support.
In a notice to the DoT released in early May, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) wrote: “BSNL is currently one of the service providers.
“If it is the executing agency including the maintenance of the network, there is a serious problem of the lack of level playing field vis-a-vis other service providers.” Trai recommended the creation of a National Optic Fibre Agency (NOFA) “for planning, operation and provision of required bandwidths to its users”. The rural broadband initiative is supported by the country’s Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF), which will provide financial backing to one operator in each circle to roll out broadband services in villages lacking connectivity, by 2014.
The project is expected to cost about Rs600bn (US$13.5bn).
Bidders that obtained 3G and BWA spectrum last year are expected to be favoured.
The DoT has unveiled new security rules for telecom equipment. One of these stipulates mobile operators will be held responsible for any security breach caused by imported equipment and may be fined up to Rs500m (US$11m).
Previous rules stipulated the vendor, and not the cellco, was responsible for any security breach, reports said. This change in regulation reportedly comes after local mobile operators said they feared that their expansion plans would be undermined by the ban imposed on certain countries, including China, to import telecom equipment on national security grounds.
The ban on Chinese vendors, which most notably include Huawei and ZTE, was lifted in September 2010, and these new regulations are seen as a further attempt to ease potential concerns.
British cellco Vodafone has paid Essar Group US$1.9bn as a first instalment of its US$5bn buyout of Essar’s stake in their JV, mobile operator Vodafone Essar. The next US$1.9bn payment is due in November 2011. Vodafone agreed to buy Essar’s 33 per cent stake in the JV in late March.
