Telenor Bans ZTE from Contract Tenders

Telenor has announced the suspension of all contracts with China's ZTE - citing alleged breaches of its code of conduct, without going into details. The ban lasts for at least six months.

"We have suspended ZTE from participating in tenders and new business opportunities for a period of six months ending March 3 next year," Telenor spokesman Dag Melgaard said, adding "The move is based on a breach of Telenor's code of conduct in relations to a procurement process,"

The ban applies to all Telenor subsidiaries worldwide.

The company has come under pressure following claims that suppliers to companies which supplied services to Grameenphone in Bangladesh were relying on child-labour, although our records do not include any sales by ZTE to that operator.

ZTE has not commented on the ban.

Posted to the site on 13th October 2008