Employees of Indian operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will hold a strike in protest of the government limiting the operator from acquiring 4G equipment vital for deployment plans.
ET Telecom reported, employee groups of BSNL will join a general strike on November 26, demanding the government settler its 10-point charter of demands, as well as the 7-point charter of demands of the Central Trade Union.
Employee groups said in a joint statement: “The revival of BSNL still remains a distant dream, since the government is not taking sincere steps for the same. Not only that, the government is also creating roadblocks in BSNL’s 4G launching. As all are aware, the government has forced BSNL to cancel its tender, that had been floated to procure 50,000 4G BTSs (base transceiver station)”.
The operator had its 4G tender cancelled by the government earlier this year due to conditions leaving out local vendors from participating. But the groups argued there is uncertainty in which local vendors are able to fulfil BSNL’s requirements for a 4G rollout in India.
BSNL planned to upgrade 49,300 sites and construct 7,000 new sites in Delhi and Mumbai for subsidiary Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), ETTelecom reported.
In May, BSNL reportedly chose Nokia and ZTE for its 4G migration which was touted to be worth around $303 million.
