State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd?s (BSNL) board will meet on Monday to decide the fate of 45.5-million line GSM tender wherein Sweden-based telecom equipment vendor Ericsson had emerged the lowest bidder quoting a price of $107 per line. The board will consider the various options, including fresh bidding of the GSM tender, trimming the existing tender size by retaining the 2G element and inviting bids for the 3G component later, SD Saxena, director, finance, said after a meeting of the management committee of the company on Friday.
BSNL is also taking a legal opinion on whether it is possible to cancel the tender partially. ?The management committee is considering various options, including reducing the existing tender size to half. It is a very complicated tender, so we are also taking legal opinion and will come out with a solution which is suitable to all,? Saxena said.
The state-owned telecom operator has time till Wednesday to reply to a letter of communications and IT minister
A Raja where he had sought to know the grounds on which US-based Motorola was disqualified as a bidder.
Raja has asked BSNL to renegotiate the price with Ericsson as equipment prices have come down since the tender was opened or drop the 3G component from the tender that accounts for 25% of the deal size. Since the 3G policy is yet to be formulated by the government and till date no availability of 3G spectrum, Raja feels that there?s no point for ordering 3G equipments at this stage at a higher price. Last year, BSNL invited tenders for 45.5 million GSM lines. Ericsson and Nokia emerged as the two lowest bidders at $107 and $176 per line respectively, whereas Motorola was disqualified as BSNL said it did not have expertise in 3G networks. Motorola challenged the decision in the courts but withdrew its case later.
As per the tender conditions, the second-lowest bidder Nokia was to execute 40% of the $4.87 billion contract on matching Ericsson?s bid of $107 per line.