The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is investigating into alleged irregularities in the process followed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in selecting private players as franchisees for its WiMax-based broadband project. The CVC is investigating deals signed by BSNL with four companies – Soma Networks, Teracom, Adishwar and Ampoules.

“A direct enquiry is being conducted by CVC on irregularities in allotting BSNL's WiMax franchisee. The Department of Telecommunications has also constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Member (Finance), Telecom Commission for detailed examination of the course of action taken by BSNL while floating a tender for short-listing of bidders for WiMAX franchisee,” said Mr Sachin Pilot, Minister of State, Communications and IT, in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The deal with Soma Networks was signed by BSNL in 2007 without any tendering process. Also, the agreement had set targets in terms of subscriber base and revenue generation. But after three years most of these targets have not been met by Soma Networks. The US-based company is promoted by NRIs. Investors include Temasek Holdings, Morgan Stanley and Sanyo.

The other franchisee partners were short-listed by BSNL in 2010 after a bidding process. But it is alleged that the terms and conditions of the project were changed post the bids were received. It has also been alleged that some of these franchisee partners exist only on paper and are shell companies.

While Teracom has been in the telecom space for some time, Adishwar and Ampoules are relatively unknown entities. Teracom has Cisco as its technology partner while Israeli firm Alvarion has an agreement with the other two.

This is not first time that BSNL's WiMax project has come under CVC scanner. The PSU was earlier forced to scrap its first tender after it was found out that the five short-listed companies had the same contact details including email Ids and phone numbers.

> tkt@thehindu.co.in

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