Meanwhile, last month, DoT had also invited tenders for a much bigger project of setting up 6 lakh fixed lines for rural telephony, which will also be based on the Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) technology. The last date of submission of the bids for this project is August 17. On Friday, the Minister of Communications, Ram Vilas Paswan held a detailed meeting with potential vendors of the WLL technology for this particular project. The meeting was convened to review the programme for induction of WLL in rural areas. Paswan sought a firm commitment from the vendors for procurement of the new equipment in a time-bound manner for the WLL system, which is likely to be inducted by the DTO for installing Village Public Telephones (VPTs).

In the meeting, Paswan announced a definite time frame for tendering, based on which, HTL and Motorola indicated that if the advanced purchase order is issued by November 2000, it will be possible for the two companies, to supply 1.5 lakh lines each. Officials of the two companies also said that they have the capability to provide 1 lakh lines each by January 2001. Of these, 30,000 lines each can be supplied by November/December this year and 40,000 lines in January 2001. Escorts Communications, which has a tie-up with LG IC, indicated it can supply up to 2 lakh lines from December to March.