BSNL has invited bids for 5.5 million GSM lines

BSNL has invited bids for 5.5 million GSM line equipment from Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent, and excluded Chinese vendors.
The newspaper said the tender was worth 20 billion rupees
($427 million) and the equipment would be deployed in the northern and eastern part of India.
India is restricting telecom gear imports from Chinese firms including Huawei Technologies and ZTE due to security concerns, industry officials say.
The government had last year directed Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to not procure equipment from Chinese firms in 15 border provinces, citing national security.
"It is a fact that telecom gear from Western vendors are expensive when compared to Chinese vendors, but a government directive prevents us from placing any orders with telecom gear makers from China,"
BSNL Chairman Kuldeep Goyal told the paper, citing the government order to not procure Chinese equipment for zones that have international border.