Several major global telecom vendors — including Alcatel Lucent, Nokia Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Huawei Telecommunication and ZTE Telecom — are among the bidders for the mobile equipment tender of state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL).
India’s junior minister for telecommunications, Milind Deora, told Parliament that the tender for procurement of 14.4 million Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication lines for expansion of 2G and 3G services has been floated by BSNL.
“The equipment is required for all the telecom circles of BSNL except Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which would get equipment under PSU quota reserved for ITI against the tender,” the minister said.
The minister also gave information on the fresh tenders which are floated based on revised requirements. BSNL had previously scrapped a tender for 93 million GSM lines which it floated in 2008 for all the telecom circles. The company also scrapped another tender for 5.5 million GSM lines which it floated in 2010 for the telecom circles of North and East zones.
