BSNL to haul up vendors for delays

Concerned over delays in its mobile network expansion projects, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has called meetings through next week with its major suppliers "" Nokia, Nortel and Ericsson "" to review the status of the projects.

All three vendors had already come in for criticism at previous meetings over the delays. In fact, Nokia was asked to submit a compliance report immediately.

BSNL sources said the poor quality of network equipment supplied by Ericsson and Nortel in the east zone had caused "massive revenue losses".
Additionally, BSNL's $500-million digital wireless network rollout in the east and west zones had also fallen offtrack due to the delay in deployment of infrastructure by Nortel Network, sources added.
In November 2005, Nokia had bagged a $141-million contract from BSNL to supply GSM/Edge and GPRS networks in north India. This was an extension of the $284 million contract signed by Nokia and BSNL in 2004.

Monday's scheduled meeting with Nokia will be the second in under two weeks and is primarily aimed at checking the Finland-based company's compliance status. In the first meet on February 9, Nokia was hauled up for "very slow progress" on BSNL's expansion project in the North zone.

Nokia was also told that "more efforts are needed by the company to ensure that capacities are realised in the least possible time and no lapses in this regard would be tolerated". Nokia was also advised "to properly check for dimensioning of the installed equipment as per the requirements of the tender". Nokia project managers were also asked to meet BSNL circle heads on a weekly basis to ensure that the project was completed at the earliest.

Responding to BSNL's complaints, Nokia executive Rajiv Jain had defended the company and said in some of the circles "many sites were ready for integration, but were pending for want of media and power connections". Following this, BSNL's head quarters asked its circles to coordinate with local electricity companies to address the issue. BSNL also asked Nokia to allot more resources for power connections.

"The meet with Nortel this Friday will review both the performance of the GSM network as well as the expansion project in the East Zone," sources added.