Indian Telecommunications Contract on Hold Pending Review of Petition from Motorola

The Delhi High Court in India has stayed the award of a large equipment contract by government-owned telecommunications service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL). The order by the court Thursday follows a petition by Motorola that it was unfairly excluded from the tender after the technical evaluation of its bid.

The court has ordered that BSNL should not award the contract before the next hearing of the case on Nov. 16. Neither Motorola nor BSNL was available for comment.

On Oct. 9, Motorola took BSNL to court after the company was disqualified on technical grounds in its bid for a large contract from BSNL for Global System for Mobile Communications and third-generation equipment.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and Nokia emerged as the lowest bidders in the BSNL tender. Besides Motorola, Chinese telecommunications equipment maker ZTE was also disqualified on technical grounds.

BSNL invited bids earlier this year for the supply of equipment for 45 million lines. Another 18 million lines were reserved for ITI, a telecommunications equipment company that is majority owned by the Indian government, and has a tie-up with Alcatel of France.

Motorola has challenged its disqualification in the Delhi High Court and is seeking further clarification and transparency in the tender process, the company said last month.

Motorola said in a statement on Oct. 9 that it had learned from informal sources that it was not invited for the price bid phase of the tender. At no point did BSNL communicate to Motorola that its bid was being dropped due to technical reasons, it added.

-John Ribeiro, IDG News Service (Bangalore Bureau)