Sweden’s Ericsson has now also rejected NT’s plans to pass it the contract, saying that it would be unable to fulfill the roll-out under the same pricing structure as ZTE or competitor Huawei, according to ktm2day.
The contract is part A of a two part project to roll out 10 million GSM lines. ZTE’s involvement was cancelled when the vendor failed to reach an agreement with NT over pricing.
Part A was planned to cover the roll-out of lines in the eastern, mid and far-western regions and the central region outside the Kathmandu Valley.
At the end of August, Huawei also ruled itself out of the contract for part A of the project, but has signed the agreement for part B, involving the supply, delivery and installation of 4.8 million GSM lines, targeted at the Kathmandu Valley and the western development region.
This leaves the Nepalese carrier with limited options to realise part A of the project, but NT said there was the possibility of a fresh tender for the contract.
NT may be forced to raise its investment budget or lower the scale of the roll-out in order for part A of its plans to expand 2G, 3G and 4G network coverage in the country to go ahead.
