The state owned Telecom Company BSNL is all set to float a tender of $9b in the coming month. The company is due set up 93 mn GSM lines to expand its net work, especially in the rural areas of India. Leading telecom equipment manufacturers are vying for the world’s largest telecom equipment tender. The companies in the race are Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, ZTE and Nortel Networks. These companies have already submitted their bids to get this tender.

Commenting on the race among vendors, the CMD of BSNL, Kuldeep Goyal said that BSNL is attracting almost all leading vendore of the world. The only missing major player is Motorola. It is recalled that BSNL had rejected the proposal of Motorola in the previous tender on technical grounds.

 Esstel, GTL, Tecmet, KEC International, Nextra, Teracom, TVS, Acme Telepower, Esstel, Aster and Susana Towers are competing for the towers set-up.