UTStarcom bags BSNL's internet backbone deal

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today awarded a contract of $8.2 million to UTStarcom Inc for deployment of multi-service access platform and related equipment for the second phase of the national internet backbone (NIB) project.

"BSNL is India's largest Internet service provider with over one million subscribers. Its dominance in fixed-line segment with more than 35 million subscribers presents a tremendous growth opportunity for BSNL in the rapidly growing data services market in India," said Ruchir Godura, country manager and director of South Asia operations at UTStarcom.

Prominent technology solution providers such as Cisco and Huawei were also in the race for this order. The Total Control 1000 multiservice platform to be deployed supports supporting enhanced data systems such as RAS, CDMA 1xRTT/EV-DO, Packet Data Serving Node (PDSN), Home Agent (HA) and virtual private networks (VPNs). Key clients for this platform include tier-one operators in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

At present, BSNL's national internet backbone comprises about 400 nodes and supports about one million subscribers with PSTN and ISDN Internet access. The second phase of the project includes deployment of remote access services (RAS) and related equipment across 71 cities in 25 telecom regions in the country.