Nokia, Ericsson, four others bid for $9bn BSNL tender

Six global telecom vendors including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel have bid for the mega tender of 93 million GSM lines floated by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd valued at approximately 8.5-9 billion dollar.     

BSNL hopes to place orders for the first phase of the 93 million lines by early 2009, BSNL Chairman Kuldeep Goyal told reporters after bids were submitted.     

Asked about the size of the deal and per line cost, Goyal said it will be lesser than the last year cost, which was 91 dollar in a 43 million GSM line tender which was later truncated to 23 million lines.     

The contract is spread over three to four years, Goyal said.     

BSNL Director, Finance, S D Saxena said it is very difficult to put the value of the deal at this stage as financial bids have not yet opened.     

Industry sources said the size could be 8.5-9 billion dollar at 91 dollar a line cost.     

Goyal said three to four vendors have applied in each of the four zones and two companies have applied for all four zones.     

However, Motorola, one of the key players, was conspicuously absent in the bidding. The company sources said, it decided to do so keeping in mind the financial viability.     

Analysts said the equipment costs have come down and BSNL is justified in seeking a lower price per line.     

In April, BSNL had used up almost all its 36 million GSM lines and most of its 5.5 million CDMA lines. It said then it would add 33.5 million lines in the year to March 2009.