Ericsson or Nortel may win BSNL order for 10 million GSM lines

Our Corporate Bureau
24 November 2007

Mumbai: Ericsson or Nortel Networks Corp. is likely to win an order for 10 million mobile phone lines, worth about $910 million, from state-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

Ericsson offered the lowest bid of about $91 a line and accepted an order for 13.1 million lines worth about $1.3 billion in September.

Nokia Siemens, which bid $171 a line, missed a deadline to respond to the order, BSNL said.

Nokia Siemens Networks was the second-lowest bidder in a tender for 23 million GSM lines by BSNL earlier this year but it is yet to accept the tender offer.

Rules say BSNL must order 40 per cent of the tender, or 10 million lines, from the second-lowest bidder if it is willing to match the lowest bidder's price.

"Nokia Siemens has not given an unconditional acceptance," BSNL's chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal said.