BSNL to float 40 to 50 mn GSM line tenders: Raja

New Delhi, July 31: State run telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will be floating a fresh tender of 40-50 million lines for GSM mobile phones in the next 8 to 9 months, Communications and IT Minister Azhimuthu Raja today said.

''It (the tender) would be for about 40-50 million GSM lines,'' the Minister said on the sidelines of a telecom function.

Mr Raja also indicated that the new tender will have third-generation (3G) technology of mobile telephony component in it.

BSNL would be inviting bids from global players, including US-based telecom vendor Motorola, which was disqualified in its earlier tender along with its Chinese partner ZTE.

The country's largest telecom company had got the approval to expand its network across the country as the minister cleared its first tender of 23 million GSM lines after cutting it from its initial size of 45.5 million lines.

BSNL placed the order for the first tender to Nokia Siemens and Ericsson that emerged as the lowest.

Sources say in the long run, BSNL will be adding a total of 90 million lines tenders, for which it will be calling all top players including Motorola.

The new tender will include second, third and fourth generation technologies.

This is more than the double of the earlier tender amount of 45.5 million lines which was grounded after the new telecom minister Azhimuthu Raja wanted a probe into the tendering process which was awarded to Ericsson after Motorola was found a misfit on executing the project for technical reasons.

Sources said the new tender is likely to include future technologies like 4G but will also include 2G which is plain voice and 3G which includes advanced voice and data.

In 4G, data can be transferred at a rate of 100mbps, outdoor and One Gbps indoor.

The new tender is expected to be similar to the earlier tender for 45.5 million lines: The new tender will also stipulate that about 50 per cent of the lines be GSM-enabled. Meanwhile, BSNL union leader V A N Namboodiri said he would defer the indefinite strike call over the earlier delay in procuring 45.5 million GSM lines.

''We will not go in for a strike now, but have decided to postpone the earlier plan. Instead, we will launch a nationwide campaign to highlight the important issues. We hope our demands will be met. We will also have a national convention in Delhi soon and all members from across the country will attend.'' BSNL unions had earlier planned to go on an indefinite strike to protest the PSU board's decision to halve the tender size from 45.5 million lines initially, in line with the wishes of Mr Raja. The BSNL unions wanted an explanation from both the PSU's management and also Mr Raja on the logic of linking the 3G component of the tender to the 3G policy.

BSNL had earlier in the month placed an advanced purchase order (APO) with Ericsson, its lowest bidder along with Nokia for the first phase of the equipment tender since the bidding process began in March 2005.

After Mr Raja assumed office, he said the bid priced at 107 dollars a line was too high and the tender has been delayed on this issue.

Motorola, disqualified from participating in the tender on technical grounds is looking for a comeback into the world's fastest growing telecom market.

UNI