Indian state-owned telecommunications operator BSNL is set to invite bids for 8 million digital subscriber lines, writes the Economic Times. Sources said global majors Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, ZTE, Huawei and others have already expressed interest to bid for the BSNL contract, expected to be worth several hundred million dollars. India has about 3.24 million broadband connections,making the BSNL tender is more than twice the existing broadband subscriber base of all operators combined. The company has informed prospective bidders that the modem should not only offer high-speed internet access, but also carry content services such as IPTV, internet telephony and VoD. It should also offer enterprise services such as VPN over broadband. Sources said that tender conditions would also stipulate that a significant percent of these modems are Wi-Fi-enabled.
