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Nortel-BSNL: Round II
By Mark Evans | March 25, 2008
The last time Nortel did business with India’s BSNL, Nortel lost its shirt….along with more than $260-million.
Nevertheless, Nortel is taking another shot at getting a bigger foothold in the oh-so-large but oh-so-competitive Indian telecom equipment market by taking on a $100-million deal to supply BSNL with GSM lines.
“India represents an enormous opportunity for Nortel in the carrier space, with its consistently high growth rates and increasingly mobile population,” said Richard Lowe, president of Nortel’s carrier networks division. “We have redesigned our GSM portfolio with this kind of opportunity in mind, making our solution much more cost competitive, without compromising the performance, capacity and coverage.”
Last September, Ericsson was a $1.3-billion contract to supply BSNL with 13.1 million wireless lines but Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens, which had the second-lowest bid, passed on the other 9.9 million lines.
Nortel’s earlier foray into India was driven by ex-CEO Bill Owens. The contract was worth about $500-million but it soon became apparent it was going to be a major loss-leader for Nortel. When Gary Daichendt was hired as COO in 2006, he battled with Owens to get out of India but lost that argument and, shortly afterward, resigned.
Topics: Contract Wins |