BSNL 4G: Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE seek to restrict homegrown companies

NEW DELHI: Multinational telecom gear makers have expressed their discomfort over inclusion of homegrown companies by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to supply network equipment for fourth generation or 4G commercial foray, calling for new restrictions, and expressed unwillingness to submit source code in the Escrow arrangement between the parties.

“Foreign vendors like Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE were trying to push BSNL to add some international experience to original equipment makers predominantly the domestic firms in fray, and to relax conditions of Indian intellectual property rights (IPR),” an industry source told ETTelecom.

Early this month, BSNL invited fresh proposals from suppliers as well as consortiums for planning, testing, deployment and annual maintenance of 57,000 sites for upcoming 4G network across the country on a turnkey basis following the Department of Telecommunications’s (DoT) suggestions to include domestic firms, as a part of Centre’s ambitious Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) initiative.