However, DoT officials claim that this decision was taken following requests by the interested parties. "The prospective bidders had asked for more time to prepare their bids. Hence, to improve the response we decided to postpone the last date by four weeks," explained a senior DoT official.

Up for bidding, is a $55 million (Rs 260 crore) World Bank-funded project for the supply and installation of Automation of Spectrum Management and Monitoring System (ASMMS) and associated services. The project is to be implemented on a turnkey basis across 22 spectrum monitoring centres.

The spectrum management - allocation and monitoring- at present is done manually across these centres. This results in inefficient utilisation of the spectrum, across different geographical areas. With this project, these 22 stations would either be connected through a land line (fibre optic) or through wireless, said a DoT official. The companies, who are likely to bid for the tender, are the government-owned Telecom Consultants of India Limited (TCIL), the Israeli company Tadiran, Germany based- Rhode and Shaw, and the French company CS Thomson.

Bid submission date extended for spectrum management projectThe complete bids are likely to be placed by consortium of companies.Procurement under International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) loans would be open to all bidders from eligible source countries and bidding will be conducted through international bidding procedures, he added.

Spectrum management has become a key issue of concern due to ever increasing demands from new technologies, which are seeking greater slices of the natural spectrum. Radio frequency spectrum is a limited natural resource internationally and is susceptible to interference. Hence, it can accommodate only a limited amount of use before the activities of one user interfere with those of another.

It is possible to optimise the information carrying capacity of the radio frequency spectrum through careful regulation and management of its use. With a massive increase in radio-based services, automation of these activities has become essential in the Indian context. Hence, this project is critical for greater optimisation of the spectrum and to ensure interference-free use of the radio spectrum.

TCIL to bid jointly with Tadiran, Comsat
TCIL will bid jointly with the Israel-based company Tadiran and the US-based satellite company Comsat, for the spectrum management project. According to TCIL officials, while Tadiran would supply the equipment and the technical know-how, TCIL will undertake the integration of the project.