NEW DELHI: India and the USA on Jan. 16 launched a major “commercial alliance” providing for a framework for increased interaction between private enterprises of both countries even as Indian and US firms signed 10 agreements for a whopping $2 billion (over Rs 6000 crore) investments in the power and telecom sectors.

The telecom sector is likely to get a major boost with the signing of a series of agreements worth $1 billion between the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and Indian private sector companies with US telecom giants.

Seven agreements and letters of intent were signed in the presence of the Communications Minister, Sukh Ram, and the visiting US Commerce Secretary, Ronald Brown. While Sukh Ram assured the US investors a level playing field” with the proposed setting up of an autonomous telecom regulatory authority, Brown said the US companies have responded positively towards the opening of the Indian economy, and a number of agreements were being signed between Indian public and private sector units and US companies during his visit involving a total amount of over three billion dollars.

The DOT exchanged a letter of intent for a $100 million pilot project with US West (India) Lid and signed two technical cooperation agreements with Hughes Network Systems ine and the Qualcomm Inc for supply of sophisticated telecom equipments and training of DOT engineers to commission and operates the networks. Under the pilot project, the Indian registered company, a joint venture between BPL and US West International, would be given a license for setting up of secondary switching area (SSA) for basic telephone services in Erode, Salem, Coimbatore and Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu. Under the agreement between the DOT and Hughes, the US company will supply 200 very small aperture terminals (VSAT) and hub-equipment costing $5 million.

Qualcomm will supply to DOT code division multiple axis (CDMA) and wireless in local loop (WLL) technology for proposed field trials at Calcutta, Delhi and Madurai.

Qualcomm also signed a joint venture agreement with Medi Enterprises to bid for the basic telephone services.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 20, 1995