Chinese firms ZTE and Huawei have won contracts from Nepal Telecom to supply and install 5.2 million and 4.8 million GSM lines respectively. NT has already signed final agreement with Huawei.[break]
Rajendra Nakarmi, deputy managing director of NT said, the state-owned operator asked ZTE to come for an agreement within two weeks, saying that delay in signing of the agreement might affect its ambitious 10 million GSM lines project. “It seems that ZTE is trying to get business from other firms rather than fulfilling its commitment to NT,” an official at NT said.
ZTE had signed an agreement with Nepal Satellite Telecom - the operator of Hello Nepal -- a couple of weeks ago to supply equipment for its service expansion. The Chinese vendor has been supplying equipment to NT, Ncell and other big telecommunication firms.
“We will be forced to award the contract of 5.2 million GSM lines to Huawei if ZTE did not come forward to sign final agreement within the given timeframe,” Nakarmi said.
Meanwhile, an official of ZTE said the Chinese vendor was busy doing necessary homework before signing the final agreement. “We will sign the final agreement within August,” Xu Lei (Henry), CEO of ZTE Nepal, said.
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