Chinese firms scoop CAT job to get us wired
Telecom equipment suppliers from China have scooped the project of CAT Telecom to wire the whole country with a Bt1.88-billion fibre-optic network in two years.
CAT started the three-day e-auction process last Wednesday, from which Huawei Technologies and ZTE clinched the deals. Huawei bagged a deal from CAT on Friday to install the optical-fibre network in the Northeast by quoting the lowest price of Bt774 million, against a reference price of about Bt1 billion. The other contenders were Marubeni (Thailand), which quoted about Bt776 million, Siemens at Bt859.8 million, Ericsson (Thailand) at Bt980 million and Jasmine Telecom Systems at Bt992 million. On Thursday, Huawei Technologies also won a deal to install CAT's optical-fibre network in the western, central and northern regions by quoting Bt484.5 million, well under the reference price of Bt605 million. The other contenders were Marubeni (Thailand), which quoted Bt489 million, Siemens at Bt555 million, Jasmine Telecom Systems at Bt577.8 million and Ericsson (Thailand) at Bt597.8 million. The state agency started the tender of the whole process by putting the South up for grabs first, on Wednesday. ZTE (Thailand) nailed that deal with a quote of Bt169.86 million, against a reference price of Bt212 million. CAT said it could save more than Bt454 million from the e-auction process in this project. It will officially announce the winners soon.
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