Optical fiber cable company Sterlite Technologies, through a consortium with Dilip Buildcon, has bagged a Rs 2,631 crore contract from BSNL for BharatNet's middle-mile network in J&K and Ladakh's telecom circles, a company filing said on June 11.
The contract, procured via Sterlite Tech's demerged global services business vertical will be for the Design, Supply, Construction, Installation, Upgradation, Operation and Maintenance of the middle mile network in the said circles.
The order will require three years for construction, and ten years of maintenance contract, STL said, involving Rs 1620.50 crore in capex, operating expenditure of Rs 972.30 crore for newly constructed network and Rs 38.33 crore as opex for existing network.
Sterlite Tech said it continues to see a 'reasonable amount' of fiber getting deployed across India over the next three years. "...the next big kicker will be the BharatNet Phase III. What has been launched so far is by the central government. On top of that, we also expect a few more states to launch their own BharatNet phase III. So, I think there will be multiple opportunities which ultimately will take the fiber to every village in India. What we ourselves are taking responsibility for in Jammu Kashmir will be to take fiber to every village in Jammu Kashmir," said Ankit Agarwal, the managing director of Sterlite Tech.
The management has allayed any concerns on account of Starlink's entry into India, and said fiber will be central to the telecom coverage.
"There's no question, in my mind or in our industry parlance, that fiber will remain the core. There will be applications for Starlink or other satellite operators on the fringe, where there is absolutely it's unviable for fiber to be deployed there, from a cost perspective, or otherwise, in those regions or applications they will probably be used for satellite," Ankit Agarwal said after the March quarter earnings.
Last year in November, Sterlite Tech had emerged as lowest bidder for orders of optic fiber networks under the BharatNet phase 3. In 2023, the Cabinet had approved an outlay of Rs 1.39 lakh crore for BharatNet, a government project for last-mile connectivity across 6.4 lakh villages. BSNL has invited bids across 16 states and UTs for the design, supply, construction, and installation of optical fibre cables, switches, routers and other telecom equipment under the tender.
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