The board of Bharat Sanchar Nigam, on 10 August 2006, approved the expansion of its mobile network by 63.5 million lines with an estimated investment of Rs.21,400 crore.

A tender for procurement of 45.5 million lines network had already been floated by BSNL for which only five companies -- Ericsson, Siemens, Motorola, Nokia and ZTE -- have bid.

BSNL has proposed to provide mobile coverage to villages having population greater than 200, subject to techno-commercial feasibility. The capacity proposed is also targeted to create at least 50 percent of 250 million network set as an objective by the government.

It is also learnt that, as against the target of 250 million connections set by the Government, which is planned to be provided up to the end-December 2007, 153.18 million connections has already been provided as on 30 June 2006.

MTNL also plans to invest Rs.2,408 crore for providing 6.4 million lines by 2007-12.

Also See:

Five bids for BSNL's 45.5m line GSM tender (13-Jun-06)