Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)?s tender for 55-million GSM lines worth around Rs 20 billion has run into stormy weather, risking the possibility of delaying the company?s expansion plans.
The issue relates to Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) asking BSNL not to enforce a clause in its latest tender that mandates vendors to share their source codes with the government. This has been opposed by Ericsson, which has dropped out from placing a bid, as it said it would not follow the new tender clause that makes it mandatory for equipment suppliers to submit source codes to the government.
Ericsson executives also maintain that if BSNL were to make any concessions to Nokia Siemens and relax this clause, it would violate existing government guidelines, which do not allow the operator to change rules midway through the tendering process. Ericsson?s objections are further strengthened by the fact that the company had, in the past, emerged as the lowest bidder in BSNL?s tenders.
