Motorola withdraws petition against BSNL

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court today dismissed Motorola's petition against BSNL as withdrawn.

This was after the US-telecom major withdrew its case against state-run telecom company BSNL in the Delhi High Court, maintaining original position that its bid was in compliance with the tender condition.

In a statement, the company said, "In view of the tremendous growth taking place in the telecom sector in the country and BSNL's petition of capacity constraints to have its share in this expansion, Motorola has decided to withdraw the case filed in the Delhi High Court.”

Maintaining its original position, Motorola clarified that "withdrawal of case by Motorola in no way reflects any change in the company's original position that its bid was in compliance with the tender condition.”

In October 2006, Motorola had challenged its disqualification in the 45.5 million lines tender announced by BSNL. It also challenged the award of the contract to Ericsson saying it was the lowest bidder and BSNL had wrongfully disqualified it on the technical evaluation ground.

Due to this case, BSNL was unable to place any order during the pendency of the petition.

With Motorola withdrawing the application, BSNL will now be able to place orders for its over Rs 20,000 crore mobile telephony expansion plans, with Ericsson and Nokia, the two winning bidders.

Ericsson, which was the lowest bidder, would get 60 per cent of the 45.5 million lines, while the second lowest bidder, Nokia, would get the remaining share of the north east and west zone.

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