BSNL puts off bids for mega GSM line tender to July 12

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has delayed the opening of bids for its 45.5 million-lines GSM tender to July 12 as equipment vendors have sought more time to submit their bids.

Incidentally, this delay comes just a day after the United States questioned BSNL's policy of reserving a third of these lines for ITI, which has collaborated with French telecom equipment vendor Alcatel.

Alcatel, which has already bagged orders for 18 million lines through this quota, can also bid for the 45.5 million-line tender.

In February, US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez had written to the Indian government on BSNL's decision to reserve a third of its mega tender to the ITI-Alcatel consortium.

The issue was again discussed in the India-US Trade Policy Forum meeting held earlier this week in the national capital.

BSNL executives, however, refused to link the delay with the US position on the issue and said the last date had been extended only on account of the vendors seeking more time.

This also marks the second time the PSU has extended the deadline "" last month, BSNL had postponed the opening of bids from May 10 to May 31.

According to BSNL executives, about 18 leading telecom and IT companies including Nokia, Ericsson and Motorola have shown interest in bidding.