The government had directed BSNL in May, 2009 not to buy equipment from the Chinese vendors for deployment in the sensitive regions of the country in the interest of national security, Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
It had barred deployment of Chinese equipments in Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra.
He said the decision was taken because "participation of foreign companies in strategic sector has bearing on national security. BSNL being a Public Sector Undertaking, its network has to be relied upon in emergency".
After government issued new guidelines on July 28 for procuring telecom equipment from foreign vendors in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs to address security concerns, "accordingly, now BSNL may enter into agreement with foreign vendors for purchase of equipments/ software/ services," Mr Pilot said.
The temporary ban had held up expansion plan of the government-run company and BSNL employee unions had raised the issue with the Department of Telecom (DoT) last week. They alleged that ban on BSNL for buying equipment from Chinese vendors was "discriminatory" and would jeopardise its growth, as private players were allowed imports from China.
In its last tender for about five million GSM lines, BSNL had invited bids only from three European and American vendors and Chinese companies were totally left out. Now the state-run telecom major can procure it from Chinese firms also.
--UNI
