Ericsson has declined the opportunity to take the remaining 40 percent stake it hasn’t already secured in Indian operator BSNL’s GSM expansion plans. Last week rival Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) announced it had given up the option to supply 9.63 million lines, after talks between NSN and BSNL broke down on financial issues. It was speculated that Ericsson would therefore become sole supplier of the 22.75 million GSM line project.

“We were offered and we said no,” Ericsson spokeswoman Jana Mancova told Reuters. Ericsson’s existing contract to supply 60 percent of the expansion project, 13.12 million GSM lines, is worth approximately US$1.3 billion.