Telecom cos flay sop rollback

Flaying the rollback, the Association of Basic Telecom Operators ABTO secretary general SC Khanna said, quot;The rollback will render all basic service projects unviable as the duty burden will go up.quot;

Claiming that basic operators will not purchase the equipment despite the lower costs, Khanna said, quot;Indigenous equipment developed by HFCL, ITI, Shyam Telecom and Crompton Greaves is not suitable at all for our purposes.quot; Khanna alleged that the CorDECT technology was based on outdated European Digital Enhanced CordlessTechnology DECT which had been licensed to HFCL, Shyam Telecom and Crompton Greaves by a US-based company Analog Devices some years back. quot;These companies have paid Rs 80 lakh to the company for licensing the technology,quot; he added.

The ABTO spokesperson added that the equipment manufactured here was essentially of the screwdriver kind. quot;The main suppliers of SDH equipment to the local manufacturers are companies like Marconi of UK, Nortel of Canada and Alcatel of France,quot; he said adding that the equipment was imported in semi-knocked down SKD form and cobbled together.

Khanna said that systems based on the DECT/CorDECT technologies are limited in their area of coverage. quot;This technology requires at least eight to 10 base terminal stations BTS against just one BTS in the case of the superior code division multiple access CDMA technology,8221; he added.Countering the criticism, Ashok Jhunjhunawala of IIT Chennai said, quot;Let them at least first try out the system and then levy unwarranted and baselesscharges.quot; He added that the system developed in house by an IIT team and Chennai based Midas Communications was rolled out over two years back and was being used by a number of countries worldwide. quot;The technology has already been licensed to companies in France, China and and other countries and is available at half the price of imported equipment in India,quot; he added.