News

US$6.5 Billion Contract Up for Grabs in India

(12 May 2008, BWCS Staff)

The race is on to win a huge order for mobile network equipment from BSNL, the Indian state-run telecoms company. This week, BSNL will invite bids for a new GSM supply deal said to be worth US$6.5 billion. The contract will require the winning bidder to supply capacity for 93 million new GSM connections.

According to the telecoms company, the usual suspects will be invited to throw their hats into the ring. These will include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei Technology, Motorola, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel Networks and ZTE. Each bid will be officially opened by BSNL on the 16th of July, this year, after that the award process is expected to take a further six to eight months. Depending on the release of spectrum by the government, some of the new network capacity will be used for 3G services, the company said.

The government-backed BSNL is keen to expand its network in order to compete with its increasingly powerful rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar.



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