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BSNL invites $5 B bid for GSM equipment
By agencies
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Wednesday, 13 July 2005, 19:30 IST
NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is floating a tender for the worldÂ’s largest single procurement of GSM equipment, worth over $5 billion.
It is inviting bids for procuring GSM equipment of a total capacity of 60m lines, 40 percent more than IndiaÂ’s existing GSM subscriber base. The value of the total order would be over $ 4 billion. The leading GSM suppliers are Siemens, Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel, Motorola, Huawei, Nortel and ZTE.
“Once this equipment is installed, we will become India’s largest mobile operator,” said AK Sinha, CMD of BSNL.The tender for procuring the equipment would be floated within two months, he added.
The official stated that it would have a condition for an additional order of 50 percent of the total quantity, which could be procured later. Therefore, the total procurement is of 60m lines.
During the second phase of the procurement process, BSNL was accused of favoring a few companies. This led to a delay in the companyÂ’s expansion and a loss of revenue and the prices were reduced as a result.