www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Huawei and ZTE have been blocked by India state owned carrier, BSNL to bid for a 20 billion rupee ($426m) GSM contract, blaming a government directive. Only Ericsson, Nokia Siemens and Alcatel Lucent have been allowed to participate in the bidding for the 5.5 million-line expansion contract in its northern and eastern zones. According to BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal, it is a fact that telecom gear from Western vendors are expensive when compared to Chinese vendors, but a government directive prevents it from placing any orders with telecom gear makers from China, especially if the equipment has to be installed in circles that share international boundaries. Diplomatic and trade row has been ignited between India and China following the decision to exclude the two big Chinese vendors last month when the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told operators that it would not give security approval for Chinese equipment purchases.