Some time back we informed you that the state run telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nagar Limited (BSNL) had started the process of rolling out its 4G services across the country.
We had informed you that the company had decided to keep the last date for vendors to apply for contracts to be May 8.
The company has issued a new notice for ‘Postponement of Tender’ to May 23, 2020, yesterday. Let’s learn more about this.
BSNL’s 4G Rollout Plan
After ages of wait, BSNL finally came out with a tender for installing 50,000 new 4G sites in north, east, west and south zones and around 7,000 new sites for Delhi and Mumbai zones (for MTNL) entailing an investment of Rs 8,697 crore.
Initially, the last date for vendors to apply for contracts was May 8. The company also decided to last date for vendors to apply for contracts is May 8 and these bids shall be opened by May 9.
BSNL Postpones the Bid Submissions
The telco has opened an online bid submission for ‘Procurement of Tender’ yesterday, by 15 days, to May 23, 2020.
The reason behind the postponement could be because of the extension of lockdown in India till May 3.
It has also come to our notice that the South Korean telecom gear maker Samsung is interested in taking up BSNL’s 4G expansion which was expected to kick start at the end of May 2020.
Government-owned BSNL is the only major telecom operator in India for not providing 4G services to more than 120 million subscribers.
Even though BSNL has 4G operations in some parts of 20 telecom circles where it is operating, the service is nowhere close to what Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea are providing.
The online bid submission and opening of the Tender for Procurement of Tender Document for BSNL’s T.E. for Planning, Engineering, Supply Installation, Testing, Commissioning & Annual Maintenance of 4G Mobile Network in North, East, West & South Zones of BSNL and Delhi & Mumbai LSA of MTNL on TURNKEY basis has been rescheduled to May 23 as bid submission end date and May 25, as bid opening date.
Vendors already Eyeing for BSNL’s 4G Project
A recent report also revealed that major telecom gear makers like Samsung, ZTE, Nokia and Ericsson are looking to grab BSNL’s 4G expansion project.
Samsung has been working closely with Reliance Jio in deploying LTE-only network across India, while BSNL has worked with ZTE in the past for network expansion and deployment.
It will be interesting to see who grabs this tender from BSNL as the project is said to be worth Rs 11,000 crore.
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