Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT services provider, and ITI, based in Bengaluru, have both bids on expanding Bharat Sanchar Nigam’s 4G network (BSNL). The bids have been submitted, and senior BSNL officials have confirmed that both TCS & ITI have done so. The process is expected to conclude within the next two weeks to a month.
Both companies have submitted bids, but insiders say TCS’s transaction size of Rs 16,000-20,000 crore is the most competitive offer.
Until the time of publication, TCS would not comment on the situation.
“As a result of the coalition, it has established, TCS is in the lead. It may now deliver both network equipment & solutions to BSNL,” said another insider.
BSNL insiders claim that ITI would not have been able to build its network without purchasing from TCS.
TCS has formed a consortium with Tata Group’s Tejas and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).
The proof of concept conducted by TCS for BSNL has yielded positive results. The impasse arose because of a disagreement about the terms of the transaction. “Therefore, bids have been submitted,” the source said.
The source also confirmed that the project has been set back by six to eight months due to the stalemate over the contract size.
A reliable source has revealed that the winning bidder has been tasked with launching services by the end of February 2019.
In a first for the telecom industry, C-DOT has built an indigenous 4G core that BSNL will be implementing.
The base is the nerve center of a cellular system, where users are connected to the network and given access to its facilities in a safe and secure manner.
The core domain of a mobile network is responsible for several different yet crucial tasks. Among these are the management of subscriber data and policies, the management of authentication and authorization, and the management of connectivity and mobility.
The partnership will assist BSNL in deploying a 5G radio access network in India (RAN).
A key feature of RAN is its capacity to facilitate the modularization of various pieces of networking hardware. It paves the way for telecoms to construct their networks with components sourced from various manufacturers.
One hundred twenty-five thousand 4G towers are scheduled for installation by BSNL. TCS will be responsible for the installation of about 100,000 of these towers. At some point, TCS will be given the go-ahead to install all of the towers.
“Our approach to 5G is three-dimensional,” N Ganapathy Subramaniam, chief operating officer of TCS, told Business Standard in a previous interview.
In the first case, TCS will serve as a systems integrator for a telecommunications network, deploying and managing a variety of heterogeneous infrastructures built by market leaders.
Two, TCS’s ability to assist businesses in constructing a private 5G network within their premises and on their campuses in accordance with local regulations. TCS will operate as a systems integrator to provide the necessary telecommunications infrastructure for the project.
Third, we need to take use of these two network levels to create vertical applications (apps).
TCS excels at creating software. The softwareization rate of the network is increasing. “In such a setting, our responsibilities extend beyond just the programs themselves. We’ve learnedq a lot and gotten quite good,” he remarked.
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