Probe BSNL, GSM deal, demands CPI leader

Allegations of foul play that dog tenders in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has just turned serious. Lok Sabha MP Gurudas Dasgupta of the C...

Allegations of foul play that dog tenders in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has just turned serious. Lok Sabha MP Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI has written to Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran to look into BSNL’s $770 million GSM deal which is being done without a billing system.

BSNL floated a tender for 11 million lines for GSM equipment for its CellOne mobile phones network with the option of ordering 4 million extra lines from public sector firm ITI in April. For this, the largest tender in the world for telecom equipment, BSNL was able to reduce prices from about Rs $115 per line for the earlier phase to approximately $70 per line for the current phase. But as far is billing goes, the BSNL has decided to go on with a single vendor, CSG Keenan, which has a monopoly over all BSNL networks.

Keenan systems, according to the note forwarded by Dasgupta, cost BSNL about $ 5 per subscriber while global rates are in the region of less that $ 2 per subscriber. This despite the fact that different billing software is compatible to BSNL systems as is done by global telecom operators like AT&T, Verizon, British Telecom, Vodaphone and Sprint.

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There’s more. While BSNL has refused to open up the GSM tender to competition for other companies , for its National Internet Backbone (NIB II) project, BSNL has postponed a tender for turnkey implementation to allow CSG Keenan to make a late entry along with IBM two weeks ago. The bidding deadline was extended from June 18 to 24 despite CSG not being a shortlisted vendor and not even entering the fray when the EOIs (Expression of Interest) were called or evaluations of bidding companies carried out.

Dasgupta has now called for an enquiry into the entire deal before a final order on the tender is placed. However, according to a senior BSNL official, “the reason BSNL had decided to keep billing out of the tender was because they wanted a common billing platform for BSNL entire cellphone network throughout India”.