India's Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) says that it anticipates launching its 3G network by next June - following deliveries of network kit from Ericsson. The deliveries relate to the previous convoluted 23 million GSM lines order which also included a provision for 3.5 million lines for 3G services.

"We hope to receive the equipment from Ericsson from December. It will take some six months to roll out the services. We will earmark around 10 million lines for the initial launch," an unnamed official told The Economic Times newspaper.

The Indian government recently announced that it will offer up to five 3G licenses with two reserved for the state controlled BSNL and MTNL, both of whom will get their licenses immediately, with the auctions for the initial licenses due within a couple of months.

BSNL recently delayed the date for opening its next monster tender for GSM and 3G infrastructure kit - worth US$6.5 billion. The bids were due to be opened on July 16 - but will now not be opened until August 30th. The unnamed official however warned that the company would review the commercial viability of its 3G network half way through the rollout - which could result in a renegotiation if customer interest proves unsatisfactory.

To fight growing competition, BSNL is looking to add at least 100 million GSM mobile subscribers by 2010. According to figures from the Mobile World database, the operator ended the first half of this year with some 37.36 million GSM subscribers - along with around 176,000 CDMA users.

Source: The Economic Times