DoT rejects ITI’s plea to break broadband tech deal with C-DOT

The Department of Telecom has rejected Indian Telephone Industries' plea to modify an exclusive transfer-of-technology agreement with Centre for Development of Telematics.

ITI had written to the Telecom Department to allow it to source broadband technology, called GPON, from foreign players because it had doubts on the competitiveness of C-DOT products. DoT officials said that ITI could not be permitted to change the agreement signed in 2011. “The agreement allows ITI to look for other partners post a tender so there’s no reason for changing the clause,’ said a senior DoT official.

Under the deal signed by the two companies, it was agreed that ITI will manufacture equipment for GPON-based broadband services using C-DOT’s technology. The deal has a ‘Relationship’ clause whereby ITI is not allowed to have technology tie-up with any other vendor for GPON products. ITI was not comfortable with this clause but agreed on it after a C-DOT accepted to include a side letter under which ITI can look for alternative partners if C-DOT products are not competitive on post tender basis. This means ITI will have to mandatorily bid for a project with C-DOT.

According to ITI sources, this clause is restrictive in nature which could push it out of contention in competitive bidding as C-DoT products are turning out to be expensive compared to other players in the market.

C-DOT, on the other hand, insists that ITI stays with the partnership and work with it to resolve issues. None of the other vendors that had done a similar deal have raised any concerns.

GPON or Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks is fixedline broadband technology that enables data access at over 100 Mps. C-DOT has indigenously designed and developed GPON technology, which can be used to provide triple play (voice, video and data) through fibre-based networks.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/3168-dot-rejects-iti%E2%80%99s-plea-to-break-broadband-tech-deal-with-c-dot.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/broadband-and-iptv-news/item/3168-dot-rejects-iti%E2%80%99s-plea-to-break-broadband-tech-deal-with-c-dot.html