Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has raised concerns over Ericsson’s high bid price for the operator’s 93 million GSM line contract.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has raised concerns over Ericsson’s high bid price for the operator’s 93 million GSM line contract. In the previous tender for 23 million GSM lines, BSNL had awarded the contract to Ericsson at less than Rs 4,000 per GSM (both 2G and 3G) line including network infrastructure such as towers and billing software. In contrast, the current price of Rs 3,000 and Rs 7,000 per line for 2G and 3G respectively does not include IT, software, billing solution or passive infrastructure costs. BSNL is now reportedly in talks with Ericsson to reach a lower price point. However, there is limited scope for negotiation since Ericsson is the only vendor shortlisted for the east and north zones. For the south zone, Huawei has been selected as the vendor.