Government owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is planning to invite bids for 60 million GSM lines valued at USD 4.5 billion. Announcing the deal, Communications and Information Minister Dayanidhi Maran said that 30% of the bid would automatically go to the public sector equipment supplier ITI, which has technical collaboration with French vendor Alcatel. Growth of fixed and mobile connections in India is highest in the world and the mobile market has already eclipsed China. Maran says every month 1.75 million new subscribers are being added and that total Indian connections will exceed 250 million by 2007; it is not clear how he got the arithmetic, as the current subscriber base in India is 5.3 million. He urged Swedish company Ericsson to accelerate its plans to set up a manufacturing facility near Chennai, as competitors Finland's Nokia will inaugurate its plant on March 11. He also revealed US-based IEMC's plan to set up a semi-conductor manufacturing in India and that Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu were trying to woo the USD 3 billion investment. These investments would totally produce over 10,000 jobs.