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Rumours concerning Nokia Siemens Networks and BSNL tender

There is some speculation in the press and online that Indian telecoms operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has disqualified Nokia Siemens Networks from bidding on a 93-million-line cellular project on technical grounds.

While we don’t usually comment on rumours, we feel that in this instance they could be damaging to the reputation of our award winning (and also here) mobile network technology, serving more than 1.5 billion people around the world.

We have not received any communication from BSNL on the results of its tender process. We are confident that we submitted a response to the BSNL tender process that fulfilled all technical requirements, as well as addressing further clarification required following the submission.

We are an existing supplier to BSNL in its north and south zones and were a qualified vendor for BSNL’s pan-India Phase V bid.

It will be interesting to see what lies behind this press speculation.

If you’re interested in our award winning mobile network technology, read on:

Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Base Station was recognized as the world’s most progressive mobile network technology at the annual GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2009. The software definable Flexi, with its outstanding, energy efficient performance in the industry’s smallest package, convinced the jury with a number of its particular benefits to operators, users and the environment.
At CTIA Wireless 2009, the Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Multiradio Base Station was selected by a panel of judges as the first place winner of the 4th Annual CTIA Emerging Technology Award in the Green Network Hardware and Infrastructure category.

Nokia Siemens Networks deliver cellular, mobile radio networks to over 350 customers in over 140 countries.

Further information on our GSM/EDGE expertise:

Our GSM/EDGE radio access technology is operational in close to 300 operator networks in over 130 countries, offering services to more than 1.8 billion subscribers
Nokia Siemens Networks is supplier to 21 of the 30 biggest GSM/EDGE operators in the world
With over 180 EDGE references, Nokia Siemens Networks is believed to be the market leader in EDGE deployment

And on our WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ expertise:

Nokia Siemens Networks has over 150 3G radio operator customers
Over half of the world’s WCDMA/HSPA subscribers are connected by Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks supplies of 18 of the 25 biggest WCDMA/HSPA operators in the world
Nokia Siemens Networks unique Internet-HSPA flat architecture solution is now bringing flat network architecture to the 3G world.

Our leadership in converged core and mobile softswitching (including R4 MSC and MGW)

We are the market leader in softswitching for mobile voice with over 230 operator customers and over 170 commercial networks in live use;
Our mobile soft switching solution, which includes MSC Servers and Multimedia Gateways, is based on - 3GPP Release 4 and subsequent releases 5, 6 and 7, and can deliver mobile voice service with up to 70% savings in OPEX
Today, well over 900 million subscribers are served through our MSC servers

Ben Roome / News / 14 May 2009 / 15:29

4 users responded in " Rumours concerning Nokia Siemens Networks and BSNL tender "

In more than 25 years of my adult life, I have never witnessed such a campaign from any respected corporate. BSNL is your customer and it does not behove of two respectable names like Nokia and Siemens to run a witch-hunt like above. From what I know there are fundamental organisational problems in your company that are known across the Indian Telecom industry. It is due to this that you are unable to fulfil the basic requirements of a tender submission. If your solutions are so good, as you claim above, why have you lost 3% market share in the past year mainly to Huawei and Ericsson? Time to wake up?

Ramesh Thakore, 4 June 2009

Hi Ramesh,

Thanks for coming to comment here.

BSNL is indeed our customer. As we explained in the original blog article, all we required was clarification as to whether it was true we had been disqualified from bidding due to failing to meet “technical requirements”and if this was the case, what were the grounds.

Remember, we only learnt this was the case through the media and received no communication from BSNL until we pursued clarification in the courts.

Left unchallenged, the sort of claims that appeared in the media can be very damaging to a company that prides itself on the technical leadership it has in providing mobile networks that support over a billion people around the world.

It is our duty to our employees and all our other customers to defend our reputation, and that is why we have sought clarification.

The argument here was not about a final vendor selection, but who was qualified to be a potential vendor and then bid on providing the network.

Ben Roome, 18 June 2009

Hi,

How come there is no update on your blog on the status of this controversy? You were quick to blame the media in your blog for spreading ‘rumours’ about NSN. The ‘claims made by the media’ are not someones imagination but a reflection of reality. If the independent panel holds up BSNL’s move to disqualify NSN on technical grounds then it is not a claim made by the media. Or is NSN expecting a direct mailer from BSNL? The truth is you need to look inwards and see why you lost out of the contract rather than saying that NSN is perfect and all the fault is with the others. Your rival Ericsson has not only managed to get into this contract but media reports say that they have got another $500 million deal. As a PR person you have the right to project your company in a good light but let that not be by hiding behind facts. The damage to NSN’s reputation is done even though you may still like to call it a ‘rumour’

shekhar, 1 September 2009

Hi Shekhar - thanks for your comment.

Our initial post here was not in any way to “blame the media” - far from it: without the media we wouldn’t have learned of our “disqualification on technical grounds” as we did.

As you’re no doubt aware, we’re still reviewing our options on this case.

We stand by the claim that - while any company is of course free not to choose a particular supplier - we know that our networks are at least as technically sound, and in many cases far superior, to any of our competitors, and that a claim that they are not, made without evidence to back it up, is damaging to our reputation.

Hence our choice to dispute a decision apparently based on “technical grounds” to disqualify us from even submitting a bid for this work with BSNL.

I’ve never been accused of “hiding behind facts” before, but it’s something I’m happy to plead guilty to.

Ben Roome, 2 September 2009

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