India's ITI Competing To Bag $1 billion Army Contract To Deliver Communication Network

State owned Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) is competing with BEL and RailTel to bag a 7,000-crore ($1 billion) contract from Indian army for delivering and maintaining its strategic communication network for 13-year duration.

The equipment and warranty are provided as part of the project for five years and maintain the network for eight years, said S. Gopu, ITI chairman and managing director was quoted as saying by The Hindu Thursday.

“We did phase one, two and three of ASCON (Army Static Switched Communication Network).” The ITI chairman added.

 ASCON is the army’s telecom network backbone implemented in phases along the borders. The network consists of a large number of voice and data switches interconnected with various media types like microwave radio, optical fibre and satellites.

Other companies including BEL and RailTel are competing to win the contract, Mr. Gopu said.

The Public sector company ITI currently has an order pipeline of Rs 1,600 crore and is targeting Rs 10,000 crore worth of deals within the next two years, including the ASCON project.

ASCON network is secured using bulk encryption. The project includes civil works for providing the complete infrastructure required at various stations besides supply, installation, commissioning and maintenance of telecom equipment, satcom equipment, optical fibre cables, and equipment.

Phase-IV will be pan-India network spanning different terrains at the northern, north-eastern and western regions as well as locations in the hinterland.

The network will be Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and IP/MPLS-based backbone network with supporting value-added services, including video conferencing, broadcast and multicast facilities.

DWDM is an optical multiplexing technology used to increase bandwidth over existing fibre networks by combining and transmitting multiple signals simultaneously at different wavelengths on the same fibre.

“Under the Network for Spectrum project ITI has got order worth ₹80 crore,” Mr. Gopu said.

Network for Spectrum is a dedicated communications network that the Telecom Department is setting up for the defence forces on the band of airwaves vacated for civilian use “It consists of various parts, including fibre laying and equipment supply. The equipment that you are supplying to this project also needs encryption technology and that we have qualified.”

As part of the project, ITI will deploy optical fibre for about 13,000 km. The firm has already completed 70% of the work and the entire project is expected to be completed by this year end.