In the thick of a controversy over its disqualification from the 45.5 million GSM line tender by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the United States-based telecom vendor Motorola on Wednesday said it will once again join the race in case fresh bids were called.
"If there is a request for proposal to the tender, we will re-bid. . . it all depends on specifications of the revised tender. . . we will certainly be in the run," Motorola India country president Amit Sharma said at an Assocham seminar in New Delhi.
"Vide this tender we will participate in all future BSNL tenders," Sharma said, adding that his company had withdrawn the petition challenging its disqualification from the contract because it did not want to harm the interest of BSNL and wanted to forge a working partnership with the public sector unit.
He expressed surprise on being disqualified from the 45.5 million GSM tender saying, "We had been globally getting high value tenders...if we qualify globally why can't we do it in India."
Motorola had participated along with its Chinese partner ZTE in the contract two years ago, but a technical evaluation done by a panel had disqualified the company on grounds of 3G equipment delivery incapability.
However, chances of BSNL calling fresh bids for the tender appear bleak.
The PSU's board has sent proposals to Telecom Minister A Raja. It has stuck to its decision of disqualifying Motorola despite Raja questioning the US-based company's exit from the process.
The revised tender proposal of 23 million lines also comprises 3G component, on the basis of which Motorola was earlier disqualified.
A final decision on the matter rests with the minister, who is expected to take a call in the next 4-5 days.
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