Five world-famous companies submit bids for contract to supply Belarus’ third GSM operator with network equipment :: Charter'97 :: News

Five world-famous companies have submitted their bids for a contract to supply network equipment to Belarus’ newly established GSM operator.

The bidders include China’s ZTE Corporation, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd based in Hong Kong, Germany’s Siemens, Sweden’s LM Ericsson International AB and Switzerland’s Alcatel Trade International, Andrei Provotorov, chief sales manager of the Belarusian Telecommunications Network (BeST), told BelaPAN.

The deadline for submitting bids expired on May 16 and the cellphone operator is expected to announce its supplier within the next 20 days.

BeST, which is wholly owned by the state, has pledged to spend $200 million within three years on building a network covering an area on which 90 percent of the country`s population is concentrated.

BeST hopes to gain at least one third of Belarus` GSM market, which is expected to grow to 4.5-5.5 million subscribers by 2010.

Belarus` first GSM provider, Velcom, has been buying all network equipment from Germany`s Siemens and Sweden`s Ericsson, while the second operator, MTS, from Siemens.