BSNL selects franchisees for Wimax rollout

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has finalised Teracom, Take Solutions, Adishwar and Ampules as partners for rolling out Wimax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access)-based broadband services, on a franchisee model. The company will offer these services in 16 circles on this model.

Teracom has been selected in eight circles — Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, UP (East), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and the North East. Cisco would be the main technology partner for Teracom.

Adishwar has been selected in the Kolkata circle, Ampules in Chennai, Haryana, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh. Take Solutions has been selected in Orissa, UP (West) and Tamil Nadu.

BSNL had received bids for its Wimax tender in November 2009. Earlier, this franchisee project had run into controversy after it was found that some of the bidders existed only on paper. BSNL had to cancel the tender twice.

Under the franchisee model, the selected companies would have to fund and create the complete infrastructure for Wimax services, while BSNL would offer the required spectrum. BSNL had been issued Wimax spectrum well before any private operator will get any, but it has not been able to take enough advantage of that.

BSNL already offers Wimax services in rural areas since last month. Chennai-based Gemini Communications, ZTE, US-based Harris Stratex and Alvarion had emerged as the four lowest bidders for the supply of 7,000 WiMax base stations to BSNL in the rural areas.

The project envisages covering 250,000 blocks across the country, whereby BSNL will set up Common Service Centres.

Wimax is a limited area wireless internet connectivity service, wherein users can access high speed internet. It is similar to Wi-Fi service, but the radius of Wimax service is larger.