New Delhi, (Samajweekly) The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has lauded state-run BSNL’s move to test India-made telecom equipment before allowing indigenous manufacturers participate in the 4G tender to be floated by the company.
Terming the move as the right direction in fulfilling the vision of self-reliant India, PHD said that it would ensure level-playing field for all indigenous technologies and also strengthen India’s cyber security preparedness.
In his letter to Anshu Prakash, the Secretary of Department of Telecommunications (DoT), PHDCCI Telecom Committee’s Mentor and Telecom Export Promotion Council Co-Chairman, Sandeep Aggarwal noted that although the cost may be high initially, but eventually the move would lead to higher GDP, high tax collection and employment generation.
“The government may have to shell out some higher cost to buy indigenous technologies through its wholly-owned subsidiary i.e. BSNL initially, but within a few years, it will reap 100s of billion dollars’ worth of additional GDP and huge tax collection on top of adding highly paying jobs for the tech India and the manufacturing sector,” he said.
Aggarwal, however said that Indian manufacturers having been largely sidelined from the bulk of the 4G telecom business of ‘Core’ and ‘RAN’, may not be able to match the pricing of the “hugely competitive, subsidised, politically and militarily motivated” technologies developed by the Chinese, and American companies.
“The game changing requirement of only Indian source code with unrestricted and irrevocable access to BSNL/DoT for the offered ‘Core’ and depositing of Indian/Foreign source code of ‘RAN’ in an escrow account shall mean full control possibilities by the Indian government against any current and prospective misuse of 4G equipment for snooping.”
He was of the view that the latest move of BSNL and the government’s ‘National Directive on Security’ will ensure level playing field for all indigenous technologies and ensure that this time, the Indian companies do not lose out on the business.
On Friday, BSNL had issued a notice saying that it would test the quality of Indian telecom equipment before letting indigenous manufacturers participate in the 4G tender to be floated by the company.
The BSNL plans to procure equipment for 57,000 sites for 4G services.
