The Hindu Business Line : CDMA sets: Terracom bids lowest for BSNL tender

GOA-BASED telecommunication equipment maker Terracom has come out tops in a financial bid to supply 10.5 million CDMA fixed wireless sets to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd over the next six months.

An industry source said Terracom partnered with Huawei of China to bid at about Rs 490 crore, about 15 per cent less than the nearest bidder, HFCL Ltd, which quoted Rs 575 crore. HFCL has bid together with a Chinese company, ZingTong.

While a top BSNL source confirmed the development, he said the final contract would be awarded only after the technical bids are evaluated. That is expected in about 10 days.

The third-highest bidder was Icom, which has also bid with Huawei, and the fourth was of Hyderabad-based Surana Telecom, which has bid with LG. The Surana-LG partnership had won the lucrative BSNL tender the last couple of years.

According to the industry source, BSNL had called for bids to supply a total of 15 lakh CDMA fixed terminals, 75 per cent of which were to have SMPS-based battery chargers that have a life eight times more than normal ones. Of the 15 lakh sets, 4.5 lakh were reserved for ITI Ltd and the rest were up for open bidding. Industry analysts had estimated the value of the tender to be over Rs 700 crore.

One of the bidders, however, told Business Line that the lowest bid appeared to be a bit off the mark. "It is very unlikely that any one can afford to supply equipment at that rate. I don't know how they managed to quote that rate," he said. He added that the other quotes were only about 2-3 per cent different from one another.