Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has bagged about 80 per cent of DoT’s Rs 25 billion rural mobile telephony project

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has bagged about 80 per cent of DoT’s Rs 25 billion rural mobile telephony project. DoT invited bids to build 8,000 mobile towers. The tender was in two parts. Part A was for companies wanting to set up and manage passive mobile infrastructure; Part B was for those intending to roll out mobile and fixed wireless services. While the bids for 80 clusters have been finalised, rebidding for one cluster will be carried out shortly. BSNL was the successful bidder for 63 out of 80 clusters (it will set up about 6,000 towers), GTL, Reliance Communications Infrastructure and National Information Technology each won four clusters; Hutchison Essar Limited (HEL) (South) got three; and Quipo Infrastructure and Hughes Communications International Limited (HCIL) got one each.

However, some rebidding may still take place.