Fixed-line operator Telkom says a recent court ruling, halting its R13 billion network upgrade, will disadvantage consumers.
On Friday, a judgement was handed down in the North Gauteng High Court stopping Telkom from progressing with its network upgrade, after the losing bidder, ZTE Mzanzi, argued the tender process was flawed.
ZTE alleged it met all of Telkom's criteria, but was unfairly disqualified from the process. However, Telkom says its “robust procurement policy and the process of applying it will stand up to scrutiny, despite recent attempts to challenge tenders issued by the company, in court”.
The interim interdict handed down stops Telkom from moving ahead with its plans to transform its network into IP-based infrastructure. It also cannot sign service level agreements with the winning bidders, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent, and needs to resolve the dispute with ZTE Mzanzi.
Easy target
While Telkom is committed to finding a resolution to the dispute as soon as is practically possible, the company is concerned at the recent trend of challenging the awarding of key tenders in the courts, it says in a statement.
“This often has serious consequences for customers by stalling rollout plans unnecessarily,” says the company.
Moholi says: “Telkom is often considered to be fair game by losing bidders who may feel entitled to be awarded business by the company. We are often taken to court on review without any foundation whatsoever.
“While one has rights to challenge administrative actions, unfortunately, the loser in this case is the end-user, our customers who have to wait for months on end, and sometimes even years, to receive quality service.
“Meanwhile, Telkom will undoubtedly be accused of poor or late execution of network solutions to the advantage of our competitors,” says Moholi.
Not good enough
ITWeb understands the tender was for a two-phased implementation. The first part - to replace the MSANs - is worth around R5 billion, while the second phase will move the entire network to IP. In total, the deal is worth around R13 billion over about five years.
Telkom awarded the MSAN tender to Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent Technologies last November, following a “fair, open and transparent procurement process”, it says. The tender was published last July and ZTE Mzanzi was not short-listed as it failed to meet certain critical technical criteria during the evaluation process, says the fixed-line operator.
On 28 March, Telkom announced the first of 3 700 MSANs had been delivered as part of its plan to revamp its network and provide facilities for faster, more flexible services to customers.
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