Indian operator BSNL is reported to be considering withdrawing a GSM equipment contract worth around US$875 million from Nokia Siemens Networks after talks between the two companies are alleged to have broken down. According to Unstrung, the vendor disagrees with the financial terms of the deal; around US$90 per line for mobile access infrastructure that can serve around 9.63 million new GSM connections. Nokia Siemens Networks originally quoted US$170 per GSM line. BSNL has already agreed a US$1.3 billion contract for 14 million GSM lines with Ericsson, representing 60 percent of the operator’s total network expansion requirement.
Unstrung reports that BSNL’s Chairman Kuldeep Goyal told Indian reporters that, with price still a sticking point between the operator and Nokia Siemens Networks, his company is considering three options while negotiations continue: awarding the remaining 9.6 million lines to Ericsson, engaging with BSNL’s other existing GSM suppliers (Nortel Networks, Motorola and Alcatel-Lucent), or issuing a new tender document.