The stage is set for one of the largest GSM tenders across the world as BSNL announced that it will float a tender for 93 million GSM lines valued at $ 9 billion on September 10. Out of the 93 million lines, 25 percent or about 23 million lines will be set apart for 3G services.

In another revelation, the CMD of the company, Kuldeep Goyal said that BSNL will be launching 3G services in the northern and eastern zones by December. He claimed that the company has already placed orders to Ericsson to procure equipment for 3G lines in the initial phase.

All the global major telecom vendors are expected to fight it out to get a share of this mega tender.