There’s never a dull moment in India’s wireless marketplace.
Media reports streaming out of the country last week indicated that Motorola Inc. and ZTE Corp. had been eliminated from the bidding process for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.’s multibillion-dollar contract to build a GSM network that can handle 62 million subscribers.
BSNL reportedly said it disqualified Motorola on the basis of “technical deviations.” The vendor asked the Indian High Court for a stay, but all it got was the court’s request for further details on the bidding process.
The likely contract winners are L.M. Ericsson, expected to nab around 60 percent of the contract, and Nokia Corp., which probably will snag the rest of the deal.
Though BSNL was quoted in the Indian press as having dismissed Motorola due to technical shortcomings, it is interesting to note that reports also indicate BSNL’s bidding process specifies that the lowest bidder takes home 60 percent of the contract and the second-lowest bidder gets the remaining share of the contract at the same price offered by the lowest bidder. Ericsson is said to have bid $107 per line, while Nokia is said to have bid $177 per line.
BSNL could not be reached for comments, while ZTE and Ericsson didn’t respond to requests for further details.
Motorola said that it was disappointed over its sudden disqualification in the network equipment tender.
“As a company committed to the highest levels of transparency in all tenders we participate in, Motorola India is surprised and extremely concerned by the BSNL decision not to invite us to continue in the price bid opening for its GSM and 3G equipment tender,” the company said in an e-mail to RCR Wireless News.
“Motorola has regularly been in discussions with BSNL ever since it invited technical discussions and has responded positively to all the technical queries raised by BSNL. As recently as a week ago, Motorola provided compliance undertakings on various requirements desired by BSNL. At no point in time was Motorola communicated that its bid was being dropped due to technical reasons. On Saturday, Oct. 7, Motorola learned from informal market sources that it had not been invited for opening of the price bid.
“Motorola has challenged its disqualification in the Hon’ble Delhi High Court and is seeking further clarification and transparency in this tender process. We are not seeking any special consideration, but rather equal consideration.”
BSNL is the only Indian carrier to offer both traditional landlines and wireless service across the country.
Bharti surrenders spectrum
Another interesting Indian development came recently as Bharti Airtel Ltd. surrendered its CDMA spectrum in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, home to about 60 million people.
India’s Department of Telecom had asked Bharti to pay higher charges to keep its CDMA spectrum intact, but the carrier decided to vacate the spectrum instead, shifting its 20,000 wireless local loop subscribers to GSM at its own cost.
Bharti acquired the CDMA spectrum in 1997, but the carrier converted to a Unified Access Services Scheme in 2003. The DoT has been asking telecom operators to give up spectrum wherever it was not being used as part of a re-channeling program so CDMA operators like Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices can have access to more spectrum.
“After allowing the use of CDMA spectrum under the UAS license, the company was forced to surrender the spectrum and was directed to pay the spectrum charges based on the combined GSM and CDMA spectrum allocated, which otherwise were to be charged separately. The company’s request for refund of the entry fee, in view of surrender of the fixed line license, was not entertained,” Bharti said in a statement.
When asked about the implications of Bharti’s CDMA spectrum surrender, Roger Entner, Ovum’s vice president of wireless telecoms, stressed that the company’s decision to pull the plug on its CDMA operations is not a vote against CDMA technology, but rather a vote against wireless local loop.
“This has nothing to do with CDMA. It has everything to do with unused spectrum. The government forced Bharti’s hand.”
