New Delhi: State-owned BSNL has floated a gigantic $10 billion (Rs 40,000 crore) tender for 93 million lines, reportedly the world's biggest order for GSM lines, reported The Economic Times.

Off these, about 21 million lines are reserved for third generation (3G) services. Sources said that the tender details have already been sent to global network majors, including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens, Motorola, Nortel, Alcatel Lucent, Huawei and ZTE. The bids of all companies will be opened on July 16.

The BSNL contract is split into three parts - 25 million each for the North, South and West Zones and 18 million for the East Zone. The tender conditions also stipulate that one company cannot be awarded more than two zones, implying that the maximum order that an equipment major can bag is for 50 million lines.

In a bid to infuse additional competition, BSNL has divided the tender into four components, 2G lines, 3G lines, infrastructure and operating and business support systems (OSS & BSS). This implies, companies can bid individually for any of the four components, or a single company can also bid for all the components.

"This tender is unique in many ways, infrastructure companies, or standalone tower companies can bid only for the infrastructure part. Similarly, IT companies can bid for providing the operational support systems and the business support systems," explained a BSNL executive.

One can put this tender size in perspective if he considers BSNL's current mobile subscriber base of 36 million, as against the 64 million subscribers of the country's largest telco Bharti Airtel.