Vendors have been wringing their hands over an anticipated $4.5 billion worth of GSM equipment orders coming from India's state-owned company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. It appears Ericsson is going to be a big beneficiary since it offered the lowest bid while Motorola and China-based ZTE were disqualified on technical grounds. BSNL's move sent Motorola to court to challenge its decision and ask for more clarification and transparency about the process. Nokia quoted the second-lowest rates and has also qualified to supply equipment. The BSNL tender had stringent criteria. The terms required the bidders to have already installed 20 million lines, including one network running with at least 2 million lines. Each vendor must also have supplied GSM networks in at least 10 nations and two 3G networks with at least a capacity of 5 million users six months prior to May 2006.
To read about BSNL's pending contract awards:
- check out this article from Red Herring
- take a look at this report from RCR Wireless News