Sterlite Technologies wins Rs 372 cr BSNL contract

Sterllte Technologies, a leading global provider of transmission solutions, today announced that it has won a contract from BSNL, valued at Rs 372 crore for enabling a Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Network based on Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology. Sterlite was awarded a major share of the total outlay of project, among competition from global players. Sterlite has streamlined its efforts to ensure that the contract is executed within FY10.

BSNL plans to implement similar FTTH networks at 25 cities across India by Year 2012, which would impact 2 million subscribers. This would provide subscribers access to never-experienced bandwidth and speed (in excess of 100 Mb/s) as well as multitude of applications ranging from utility applications such as high-definition video conferencing or entertainment applications like high-speed gaming.

The current phase of the FTTH network would be capable of providing high-speed internet, IPTV solutions, VoIP, and other Value Added Services to about 5,00,000 subscribers. BSNL, one of the largest telecom service providers globally, will be the first telco in the country to deploy commercial scale FTTH network.

At the recent OFC/NFOEC (the world's leading global conference for optical communications and networking professionals) 2009 in San Diego, California, Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director of BSNL, indicated that up to 5 per cent of all Indian households could have FTTH by 2011 and IPTV would be one of the key drivers for uptake of FTTH.

Anand Agarwal, CEO & director, Sterlite Technologies said: “India is at the cross-roads in telecommunication technology, with networks being rolled out for 3G, Wimax, NGN (Next Generation Networks) and FTTH. We believe FTTH will offer subscribers limitless possibilities by serving the requirements of bandwidth-hungry applications and this would revolutionise the way subscribers work, live and play. We commend BSNL’s relentless efforts in putting India on the telecom map of the world and we are honored to be chosen as a partner for this project.”