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From the News Desk
Tuesday, 17. July 2007
BSNL Halves GSM Tender
India’s largest telecom company, BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam) has reduced its 45.5 million GSM mobile order to half and has asked the two suppliers Nokia and Ericsson to reduce their prices too.
Ericsson and Nokia had earlier qualified to get the order for putting in the lowest bids. They were competing with major competitors including Siemens, Motorola, Huawei.
The BSNL is also believed to have come concluded that the order will be limited to only 2G lines. The BSNL decision comes after the new telecom minister A. Raja. This will also give a boost to the private competitors such as Airtel, Idea, Reliance and Tata that are offering pan India services. BSNL also decided to float a separate tender for 3G services. The decision to overturn the earlier order, which was a combination of 2G and 3G lines, was taken in cognizance after communication minister A Raja’s letter to the board that the existing tender should be restricted to only 2G considering the 3G policy has still not been finalised.
In the earlier order, the equipment suppliers had to supply 17 million lines, out of which 75 per cent would have been for 2G while the rest would be for 3G. With only a 2G order now, industry experts say the price per line would range anywhere between USD 60-70.
"Keeping in mind the minister's suggestions and BSNL's interests, we have taken some decisions which will be conveyed to Raja," BSNL chairman and managing director A K Sinha said.
Ericsson and Nokia had earlier qualified to get the order for putting in the lowest bids. They were competing with major competitors including Siemens, Motorola, Huawei.
The BSNL is also believed to have come concluded that the order will be limited to only 2G lines. The BSNL decision comes after the new telecom minister A. Raja. This will also give a boost to the private competitors such as Airtel, Idea, Reliance and Tata that are offering pan India services. BSNL also decided to float a separate tender for 3G services. The decision to overturn the earlier order, which was a combination of 2G and 3G lines, was taken in cognizance after communication minister A Raja’s letter to the board that the existing tender should be restricted to only 2G considering the 3G policy has still not been finalised.
In the earlier order, the equipment suppliers had to supply 17 million lines, out of which 75 per cent would have been for 2G while the rest would be for 3G. With only a 2G order now, industry experts say the price per line would range anywhere between USD 60-70.
"Keeping in mind the minister's suggestions and BSNL's interests, we have taken some decisions which will be conveyed to Raja," BSNL chairman and managing director A K Sinha said.
