The Hindu Business Line : Nortel bags $100-m GSM deal from BSNL

New Delhi, March 25 In a bid to salvage its GSM mobile roll out, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has awarded a $100-million contract to the Canada-based technology major Nortel.

BSNL’s GSM project had run into rough weather after Nokia Siemens refused to accept the agreement on the grounds that the price offered was too low and the tender conditions were changed after the bids were placed.

While Ericsson had accepted to take up part of the 22 million line contract, BSNL has decided to offer the remaining part to its existing vendors.

The delay in rolling out its network has already cost BSNL a few thousand subscribers as it faces capacity crunch in part of the country.

The deal with Nortel will enable BSNL to enhance its network capacity in South India.

Nortel had earlier supplied equipment to BSNL in the eastern zone but had not participated in the mega 45 million line project, which was later reduced to 22 million.

This is Nortel’s first major win in the Indian GSM segment over the last 2-3 years.

“India represents an enormous opportunity for Nortel in the carrier space, with its consistently high growth rates and increasingly mobile population. We have redesigned our GSM portfolio with this kind of opportunity in mind, making our solution much more cost competitive, without compromising the performance, capacity and coverage for which Nortel is renowned.

“Nortel offers an immediate solution for today’s high-growth markets, and a clear migration path to 4G as operators across India eye the evolution of their networks to offer higher-bandwidth services in the near future,” said Mr Richard Lowe, President, Carrier Networks, Nortel.

Nortel’s deployment of the BSNL network expansion is already under way and is expected to be completed towards the end of 2008.

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