BSNL chairman and managing director Anupam Shrivastava said Nokia and ZTE have emerged as the top two telecom equipment bidders for the telecom operator’s Rs 6,000 crore expansion project.

BSNL has earmarked Rs 6,000 crore towards its Capex (capital expenditure) plan for installing 40,000 Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in the next two years to expand its mobile network.

BSNL has installed 40,000 BTS in the last three years. BSNL, in the next phase of expansion, will deploy 40,000 BTS in the next two years. “Around Rs 6,000 crore would be invested in the next two years for the expansion,” Shrivastava said.

BSNL has initiated the process of awarding contracts to equipment vendors. Nokia has emerged as the number one bidder, followed by ZTE. According to the rule, the L1 (number one bidder – in this case Nokia) has chosen West and South zones and L2 would be given North and East.

Nokia recently accepted the order and advance purchase order to ZTE would be issued in the next 10 days.

The new BTS would be a combination 2G, 3G and 4G, and the operator would replace the old 2G network.

Currently, BSNL has 1,30, 000 BTS and after the expansion, the total number would be 1,70,000.

Speaking on the state-run telecom operator’s financial health, Shrivastava said a revival plan had been chalked out and the company was expecting to make profits in 2018-19 once again.

According to him, it is expecting to be EBITDA positive (operating profit) for the third consecutive years in 2016-17. Revenue from operations is expected to be marginally high at Rs 28,700 crore in 2016-17 as against Rs 28,400 in 2015-16. The operator is computing its accounts for the 2016-17.

BSNL, after suffering losses to the tune of Rs 691 crore in 2013-14, reported operating profits of Rs 672 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 3,855 crore in 2015-16.

BNSL will be EBIDTA positive in 2016-17 with an improvement in revenue from operations.