Ericsson India and Huawei Technologies are set to witness their top line surge by significant amount as the two companies merged as top contenders for BSNL''s mega GSM tender for GSM lines which is valued at over % 6 billion and is considered to be among the top tenders floated across the world.

Ericsson has emerged as the only qualified bidder for the North Zone while Huawei has qualified for South and West zone. For East, both the firms are in race.

The move results in set back to firms such as Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Nokia Siemens and ZTE which had also submitted their bids. These firms are said to be disqualified on technical grounds. Interestingly Nokia Siemens had earlier provided equipment to BSNL as part of a similar tender floated by the company.

For BSNL, it will have to hope that the price quoted by the financial bidders suits its pockets since the emergence of single firms in most of the zones has left BSNL with no choice.

BSNL is now waiting approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs before awarding the contract. 

The move further consolidates Ericsson's market share within the incumbent operators segment. Huawei meanwhile continues its dream run in the Indian market having bagged major orders especially from new entrants in the Indian market.