Halt BSNL's GSM tender process: Ericsson to DoT

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam’s (BSNL’s) tender for 5.5 million GSM lines, worth Rs 2,000 crore, has hit another hurdle. European vendor Ericsson has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to put an immediate stop to the ongoing evaluation and finalisation of the tender to ensure fair competition and transparency. Regarding this, Ericsson sent a letter to DoT Secretary R Chandrashekhar.

“There have been gross irregularities in framing the techno-commercial requirements of the tender to limit competition by mandating the security clause, which directly favours Chinese telecom vendors. European vendors have publicly expressed their reservation in complying with this requirement,” Ericsson’s Vice-President and CFO Patrick Johansson said in the letter.

BSNL had earlier cancelled its tender for 5.5 million GSM lines and called for bids again after revising the guidelines, following an amendment in the licence conditions for security purposes.

Ericsson also sent a letter to BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Das for not opening the financial bids of the tender until the issue raised by it had been addressed, in line with BSNL’s procurement process and Central Vigilance Commission guidelines. Back-to-back controversies in its tendering process have not allowed BSNL to place any order for equipment for three-four years. BSNL posted a loss of Rs 1,822.7 crore in 2009-10, its first. Nokia Siemens Networks, another European vendor, had also asked BSNL not to enforce a clause for sharing source codes. Meanwhile, Ericsson has also approached the Central Vigilance Commission for a probe into the earlier tender of BSNL, which banned Chinese vendors such as Huawei and ZTE from bidding. Due to a government directive, BSNL was not allowed to invite Chinese telecom vendors for participation in the tender.