Juicy contracts have started flowing back to top Chinese telecom gearmakers. After China’s Huawei clinched a plum 3G network equipment contract from Tata Teleservices on Thursday, it was rival ZTE Corp’s turn to land a 300-crore contract on Friday to supply WiMax systems to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for its broadband rollout.
ZTE India chairman & managing director Dr DK Ghosh told ET the company would supply the gamut of WiMax systems to hasten BSNL’s WiMax broadband rollout over the next six months. “We’ve entered into a pact with BSNL to supply diverse WiMax systems valued at 300 crore. The gear will be a mix of WiMax base-stations , switches and specialised WiMax terminals/handhelds. A portion of the equipment will be manufactured at ZTE India’s Manesar plant,” he said.
A few months ago, BSNL had issued letters of intent (LoIs) to Teracom ,Be that as it may, the latest developments signal a marked change in the mindset of the Indian security establishment . Even till recently, the Union home ministry had issued umpteen warnings that foreign telecom equipment vendors , especially the Chinese, had the capability of installing spyware and malware to monitor voice and data traffic and disable networks. Industry circles believe it was the recent missive from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) urging the communications and home ministries to review the new stringent security standards that had been labelled “too tough” by foreign telecom gear makers that have prompted the DoT and the home ministry to clear telecom gear imports from Chinese vendors.
The latest wave of contracts to Chinese telecom gearmakers comes at a time when the government has fixed the national broadband rollout target at a 100 million lines by Year 2015 from the present level of 8 million. While 3G mobile broadband rollouts are slated to account for nearly 55% of new additions, WiMax rollouts are expected to account for nearly 35% of the national broadband services target over the next five years.
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