Bangalore Unwired mired in red tape

Bangalore Unwired mired in red tape
The Times of India

Bangalore: What has happened to Bangalore Unwired, the state government's ambitious project to bring Bangalore on par with cities like San Jose, Philadelphia, Westminster and Taipei in terms of lastmile internet access?
It envisaged providing easy and seamless internet connection to individuals, households, hotels, hospitals, schools and corporates, sans wires, modems or dial-up devices from any point in the city.
A request for proposal (RFP) issued by the state government last year had set January 26, 2007, as the commencement date of the project. But the government is yet to complete the evaluation of bids submitted by four consortia — ITI (with SRIT & Rail-Tel), Keonics (with Airtel and Arasur), Microsense (with VSNL), and Pronto Networks (with Aircel). As per the RFP, the selection of vendors should have been finalised by January 16.
Interestingly, some bidders, like Keonics (Airtel), Aircel and Microsense, have gone ahead and announced independent "unwire" projects. This has dampened the spirit of other bidders who are still waiting for the government to finalise the vendor.
"The project is already delayed by two months. It looks like the project has got mired in a bureaucratic tangle. Now that some bidders are launching independent projects, the entire bidding exercise looks like a mockery,'' said an official of one of the bidding companies.
Some others allege that a telecom lobby is working against the project, because most bidders have proposed much lower rates than the prevailing ones. One bidder is said to have even proposed basic internet for free and realtime bandwidth-on-demand (BoD).
"Once the project is implemented, it could adversely impact the revenues of telecom and internet service providers,'' said an industry source.
S Sadagopan, head of the evaluation committee, told TOI that the project has run into a slight complication. "One of the bidders who broke away from its consortium now wants to re-enter the fray. It had pulled out its bid 10 days ago. But on Thursday, it sent us an e-mail, saying its exclusion from the project was unfair. We need to consult a legal expert on this. If everything goes well, a government order can be issued in 10 days. We want everything to be done in a fair and transparent manner."
At the time of filing the expression of interest, Pronto Networks partnered with Spectranet.
But later, while bidding, Pronto went with AirCel. Following that, Spectranet submitted an independent bid, which was rejected by the government on the grounds that only the front-end partner could change the partner or bid independently. Spectranet has now raised objections to this. H G Srivara, additional managing director, Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS), said the delay is primarily due to a move to enlarge the geographical scope of the project. "When it was planned a year ago, it was meant only for the city. Now, we are thinking of a much wider coverage, including the peripheries and fringes. So, it's taking time.''