Motorola drops lawsuit against India's BSNL

Handset maker Motorola will drop a court case charging India's state-run BSNL with unfairly disqualifying it from bidding on a large contract, an Associated Press report said.

The report said in November, the Delhi High Court temporarily stopped India's BSNL from awarding an estimated $5 billion contract to lay phone lines and supply advanced telephone equipment, after the US telecom equipment maker filed a complaint.

Motorola was disqualified from the bidding process on technical grounds, while Sweden-based Ericsson emerged as a favorite, the Associated Press report said.

'Withdrawal of the case by Motorola in no way reflects any change in Motorola's original position that its bid was in compliance with the tender conditions,' the company said in a statement.

The statement didn't elaborate further. BSNL officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Other bidders for the contract included Nokia, Siemens and Chinese telecom giant ZTE, which also was disqualified for technical reasons, the report said.