Several leading telecom and IT companies like Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, Cisco, Huawei, Alcatel, Lucent and HP have evinced interest in BSNL's tender to add 45.5 million GSM lines.

The bidders will be able to seek clarification on tender conditions by 21 April 2006 following which BSNL will hold a bidders' conference on 28 April 2006. The company will reply to all clarifications by 3 May 2006 and bids will be opened on 10 May 2006.

Alcatel, a French equipment manufacturer, which has bagged an order for about 18 million lines through reserved quota for ITI, will also be eligible for bidding for the rest of the zones. BSNL plans to add 63 million lines but 30 per cent of these has been reserved under PSU quota for ITI Ltd.

The entire capacity is proposed to be a mix of 2G and 3G services and at the end of the project, it is expected that at least 50 per cent shall have 3G capability.

BSNL has also laid down the condition that all prospective bidders will have to set up their manufacturing base either on their own or get their equipment manufactured through contract manufacturers, who either already have a base in India or proposes to set up one.

Also See:

BSNL floats global tender for CDMA lines (18-Mar-06)