Motorola disqualified from huge India contract

Motorola has gone to court to challenge a decision by India's state-run telephone service company that disqualified the US firm from bidding on a large contract, an Associated Press report said.

The Associated Press report said India's BSNL is the only company offering landline and mobile phone services across all states and federal territories.

The contract on offer involves laying 62 million GSM lines and supplying 3G equipment, the report said.

BSNL's technical evaluation committee disqualified Motorola and Chinese telecom giant ZTE from the bidding process last week, the report said.

Earlier reports said Sweden-based Ericsson emerged as a favorite, offering to execute the contract at a cost averaging $107 per line.

A BSNL official when contacted declined to comment, the report said.

In a statement, Motorola said it was 'surprised and extremely concerned by the BSNL decision.'

The company said it had been in discussions with BSNL, and at no point was Motorola told its bid was being dropped because of technical reasons.

Other bidders included Nokia and Siemens. At Ericsson's bidding price, the contract's value would total $6.6 billion, the report further said.