The country’s leading state-owned mobile carrier, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been in the news for quite some time lately. After they were allotted the 3G spectrum, the undertaking has already begun testing their 3G services. Even though the company already offered EVDO services in southern India, official test practices are underway in the city of Pune, where the company is offering free video-call service to a select few customers.
According to reports that are coming in, BSNL, the seventh largest telecommunications company in the world is all set to spend some big bucks on upgrading their infrastructure in the country. The firm is all set to go completely paperless and has invited bids for a Rs. 400 crore project.
The telecom player is planning to adopt and implement Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) throughout the country, reports Business Standard. The player is set to choose a bid within the next three months and heavy IT companies such as TCS, Infosys, Satyam and HCL have all bid for the same.
Mr. Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman and MD of BSNL, said:
We have received bids from TCS, Infosys, Satyam and HCL for country-wide implementation of ERP which will make BSNL offices paperless.
The Rs. 400 crore project will be implemented over the next 18 months once BSNL finalizes the IT firm. While TCS has partnered with Oracle for the project, the other three companies are banking on SAP.
As a part of the project, there would be a centralized database for everything, which would help every department to store and retrieve information in real-time, says the report. The city Hyderabad has been chosen to house the main site for data back up, while Kolkata would house the disaster recovery site.
Although, this is not the only goodie bag that Kolkata gets. The city has been chosen to receive an investment of Rs. 499 crore from BSNL for enhancement of network. All this is being done to prepare for the big launch of 3G services by the end of the year. 3G services will bring a host of new or better features to the consumers, such as faster internet speeds (upto 300kbps).
The benefits of this large investment are not limited to the mobile subscribers only. The telecom player also has plans to invest considerable amounts for the expansion of landline and CDMA technologies and infrastructure.
This is an interesting step by the operator, to take the country towards the 3G era. One can now dream of affordable 3G services, compared to those that will be offered by the private players. And with ERP system backing its core, expect some quick or better services from the operator.
With its passive and monolithic approach, seems that BSNL is yet to figure out what to do next. God save the queen