With Nokia and Siemens on the same side, their combined power to bid for and win equipment-supply contracts in the expanding Indian telecom market is likely to increase. Both vendors are runners-up in an ongoing expansion spree of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in which it will rollout 45.5 million new phone connections.The BSNL contract is the biggest in the world for telephones, valued at $4-5 billion. Global players in the race for this contract also include Nokia’s direct competitor Motorola and places the combined entity only one step behind Ericsson.The merged company will also find it easier to tackle Chinese vendor ZTE, which is participating in the BSNL bid and is expected to be competitive in technology and pricing.
