Vendors refuse to supply gear to BSNL at ZTE's prices

Leading telecom equipment companies have refused to supply gear to BSNL at the price quoted by the lowest bidder, China’s ZTE, in the 14.37-million line network expansion tender floated by the public sector undertaking.

After a gap of around five years, BSNL selected equipment vendor ZTE, Huawei, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Network for its expansion plan. BSNL had issued them advance purchase order, in which they were offered a chance to supply equipment at the price quoted by ZTE. A senior BSNL official said Huawei, Alcatel Lucent, NSN and Ericsson have refused to match price quoted by ZTE, but added the expansion will continue according to the process.