India’s state-owned telecom enterprise, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, announced that it had received bids from Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks for providing 5.5 million additional lines of connection to expand GSM operations.
BSNL is…
India’s state-owned telecom enterprise, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, announced that it had received bids from Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks for providing 5.5 million additional lines of connection to expand GSM operations.
BSNL is the fourth largest cellular service provider India, with over 64 million customers and the largest land line telephone provider in India.
The telecom operator had earlier called for a 93 million line tender, which was later cancelled
The bids received from China’s Huawei and ZTE were rejected, however Huawei was the winner in one of the regions under the earlier 93 million line tender.
BSNL had earlier cancelled 93 million line tender amid controversies that the process lacked competition and also the PSU did not require that kind of capacity addition at one go.
Leading vendor Nokia-Siemens, which was disqualified from participating in the financial bid, had also challenged the decision of the telecom PSU in the court.
Due to cancellation of the tender, the PSU has been facing a severe capacity shortage.
