BSNL’s GSM tender on hold
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Tender to set up 93 million mobile phone connections based on the global system for mobile communications technology by India’s state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has been put on hold. The matter is under Central Vigilance Commission, a federal corruption watchdog.
The CVC will investigate charges of irregularities in the tender to set up 93 million mobile phone connections. According to H.C. Ahluwalia, general manager, marketing, the telecommunications services provider will touch the 1 million subscriber base mark on its third generation network by March end, as against 600,000 currently.
Four international telcos to bid for stake in Zambian incumbent.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Four international groups namely Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.of India, LAP Greencom Ltd of Libya together with LAP Green Networks, Angola’s Unitel, and Russia’s Vimpel Communications, bidding to buy 75% stake in Zambia Telecommunications Co. have been shortlisted.
According to Muhabi Lungu, acting director general of the ZDA, all the four shortlisted companies are serious and respected telecommunications players. In the next round of bidding on Monday, the shortlisted bidders will be given an opportunity to conduct further due diligence on Zamtel before submitting new offers.
25% stake has been retained by the government, which has reserved the right to sell this through an initial public offering on the Lusaka Stock Exchange.
Telcos of India, Libya & Angola bid for Zamtel
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Three companies from India, Libya and Angola, have submitted their bids for state-run Zambia Telecommunications Co. also known as Zamtel in its partial privatization.
The bidding period ended with the submission of these three offers in Zamtel, informed the acting director general of the Zambia Development Agency, Muhabi Lungu.
According to Lungu, LAP Green of Libya, Unitel of Angola and Bharat Sanchar Nigam of India have submitted their offers to buy up to a 75% stake in the company.
In October the list of suitors had came down to eight from the 30 firms who had earlier shown interest. Criticizing the sale, the opposition party said that Zambia should retain a larger stake in the company. The shortlisted candidates will be announced by January11.
BSNL puts Zain purchase on hold.
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has put its plan to be a part of the consortium looking to buy a stake in Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co, on hold. The decision was taken as the information sorted by Vavasi Group has still not been received.
Vavasi Group which is not yet listed in India had tied up with Al-Bukhary group of Malaysia to buy a 46% stake in Zain. It was trying to add state-owned Indian telecommunications firm like BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., to the consortium. By joining the consortium, BSNL and MTNL seek to widen its horizon beyond India.
Earlier, Gurudas Kamat, India’s junior telecom minister had said that both MTNL and BSNL are not very serious about joining the consortium.
The state owned telecom companies are facing stiff competition from private sector companies. According to BSNL Chairman Kuldeep Goyal, BSNL’s revenue is going to be severely hit by the latest tariff war in the current financial year.
The company is planning to add 20 million working lines to its present 50 million on the global system for mobile communication platform, over the next six months. Besides, it is also planning to spend INR140 billion in the current fiscal year to expand its mobile services.
BSNL plans massive expansion in mobile services
New Delhi, Aug. 24 (UNI): The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., (BSNL) has floated a tender for procurement of 63.5 million mobile telephone lines with the aim of achieving the largest ever expansion, IT and Communication Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, said today.
“The capacity expansion of BSNL alone in the next two to three years will be equivalent to the capacity expansion of all the private players put together,” Maran said in the Rajya Sabha.
Answering a supplementary, he said with the implementation of the capacity expansion, not only the coverage of mobile telephony would increase, but the quality of service would also improve.
Members belonging to different parties, including the treasury benches, complained about the poor quality of mobile phone services by the MTNL and BSNL.
Senior CPM member, Sitaram Yechuri, went to the extent of asking the Minister whether the government companies were not installing communication towers so that the private operators could flourish.
Source- http://www.hindu.com/
Technorati : BSNL, MTNL, Mobile
Ice Rocket : BSNL, MTNL, Mobile
