The department of telecommunications (DoT) officials will travel round the globe to fix a suitable WLL (wireless local loop) system for the Rs 600 crore ADB rural telecom plans for eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Rural telecom for eastern Uttar Pradesh was one of the dream projects of telecommunications minister Beni Prasad Verma. The new development follows the tender fiasco in which almost all offers from world telecom giants have proved unsuitable and do not comply with tender specifications of the DoT.Global competitive bids for design, manufacture, supply, installation and commissioning of the network system were floated last year.

The Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) of the DoT which evaluated the bid offers has in its confidential report dated July 7 suggested that since no offer could be considered technically and commercially nearest to the tender specifications the members of the TEC should visit the installations of companies whose bids had come close to meeting the conditionalities.

The companies whose offers were found nearest to the tender conditions are BEL and PCL. The TEC report said, "though PCL and BEL claim that working systems are available, it is not sure whether they are exactly on the lines of the quoted system. As per the tender document it shall be possible for the bidder to arrange inspection and verification of installation by the purchaser at the purchasers' cost".

The report further said, "TEC suggests that a visit of the members of the TEC to the installations of these systems and discussions with the operators who are using the same will be essential". TEC will submit a supplementary report after the proposed visits. It wants the findings of the visit to the sites to be taken into account before opening the financial bids.

The ADB rural tender is a classic case of the DoT pussyfooting in the rural telecommunication programme. Beni Prasad Verma was keen on implementing the ADB project on a war footing as eastern UP is considered his political cradle. Now that the global tender has proved a non-starter, he will have to wait long before he is able to reach telecom facilities to his rural constituency. In response to the DoT invitation 14 bidders participated in the tender. These were Harris Canada Inc, Punjab Communications, Bharat Electronics, Alcatel Telecom, Motorola, Netelco Systems, Lucent Technologies, ARM, Crompton Greaves, Sat Division Telecomms, Qualcomm, ITI, Toman Corporation and NEC Corporation. The TEC rejected five of them instantly as they were considered unqualified to participate.

The tender had raised a controversy, with telecom majors like Siemens, Alcatel, Ericsson and Crompton Greaves objecting to the frequency band ecifications which they felt were designed to keep these companies out of the bid. Now, the DoT has got caught in its own web.

The PCL had offered two types of subscriber units consisting of voice and PCO. It had further said that one of its commercial systems was in operation in China.

The TEC said it is not clear that the offered system is same as one offered against the tender. "Therefore physical verification is required".

On the other hand, BEL's experience with the commercial system at a number of locations has been indicated, said the TEC. These systems are of TDMA-10 version as against TDMA-3 offered by the company. The TEC has indicated that only the fully compliant network engineering solution should be considered for financial evaluation.

The TEC report said, "The offer of Harris is not acceptable on account of non compliance of environmental specifications and mixed analogue digital operation. Lucent technology has not furnished full replies to clarifications sought and only part reply has been given. However, it is clear that the offered system is a mixed analogue digital system. Battery back up does not meet the specifications and has not complied with commercial clauses. As such the offer is not acceptable".

"NEC has indicated that they will give replies to many questions later.However, considering deviations noted regarding capacity, compliance with standard and RF Spectrum requirement for more than five plus MHz, and in the absence of clear replies the offer is considered as not responsive and unacceptable".

"The remaining offers are also not fully compliant. BEL, PCL, ITI and Qualcomm have offered fully digital systems with some deviations. Qualcomm, clarifying about environmental specifications, has put a condition of software override against damage. This is not acceptable. They have also not unconditionally accepted the commercial clauses, for which the offer is not acceptable", the TEC report concluded.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.