Differences between government-owned ITI and its technology partner Alcatel Lucent have come out in the open, with ITI seeking Rs 130 crore from Alcatel Lucent for not meeting technical specifications for equipment supplied to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) under technology transfer schemes.

In a letter to the Alcatel Lucent chief finance officer (CFO), ITI has sought payments pending due to validation issues since 1996. “An amount of Rs 930 million has been shown as overdue to Alcatel from ITI. We appreciate your concern and are equally keen to finalise this issue without any further delays. However, withholding of processing of further orders as indicated in the letter does not arise since as per our records, it is observed that a factual net amount of Rs 1340 million is pending from your side after off-setting your claims of Rs 930 million,” said the letter issued by ITI’s finance department to Alcatel Lucent.

When contacted, ITI director (marketing) Tejbir Singh refused to comment. ITI has been purchasing technology from Alcatel since 1983 for fixedline switches and since 2004 for GSM. The deal was made with the assurance that Alcatel would meet all technical specifications and standards laid by TEC, a division of the department of telecommunications (DoT) responsible for setting up standards.

However, on may occasions the technology and equipment supplied by Alcatel Lucent failed to meet the complete technical specifications. That is the reason BSNL, which is ITI’s main customer, didn’t pay the full amount.

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