BSNL to spend Rs 6,000 crore on expansion; Nokia, ZTE to get contracts

Kolkata: Public telecom operator BSNL will invest Rs 6,000 crore for installing 40,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in the next two years to expand its mobile network and is in the process of awarding contracts to equipment vendors, an official said on Friday.

According to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) official, Nokia and ZTE have emerged as the top two bidders for the expansion project.

"We have installed 40,000 BTS in the last three years and in the next phase of expansion, we again put 40,000 BTS in the next two years. Around Rs 6,000 crore would be invested in the next two years for the expansion," company`s CMD Anupam Shrivastava said here.

"We have initiated the process of awarding contracts to equipment vendors. Nokia has emerged as the number one bidder, followed by ZTE. According to the rule, the L1 (number one bidder - in this case Nokia) has chosen West and South zones and L2 would be given North and East," he said.

Nokia recently accepted the order and advance purchase order to ZTE would be issued in the next 10 days, he said.

The new BTS would be combination 2G, 3G and 4G, and the operator would replace old 2G network. 

Currently, BSNL has 1,30,000 BTS and after the expansion, the total number would be 1,70,000.