Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has finally decided to award the contract for 22.5 million GSM lines to Ericsson and Nokia, the lowest and second-lowest bidders, respectively.
The cost per line would come down to around $80, against $107 quoted earlier.
BSNL has halved its tender size from 45.5 million lines after communications & IT minister A Raja said the $107-a-line cost was too high. Approval from the government to the lower cost came within a day of BSNL?s board submitting the revised option.
Speaking to FE on Wednesday, BSNL CMD AK Sinha said, ?The advance purchase order would be placed on Ericsson and Nokia either today or tomorrow.? He said that though the APO would be placed for both 2G and 3G components, the 3G order would be placed only when spectrum was allocated.
The issue of the ITI-Alcatel combine, which was to lay 18 million lines under the PSU quota, would be resolved later.