Reliance Comm to place $5.6 bln GSM order - paper

MUMBAI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - India's Reliance Communications Ltd (RLCM.BO), the No. 2 mobile services operator, plans to place an order for 70 million GSM lines which could be valued at up to $5.6 billion, the Mint paper reported on Friday, quoting anonymous sources.

"We are already in discussions with equipment vendors for the GSM roll-out," it cited a senior company executive as saying.

The order is likely to be placed sometime next year, it said, citing analysts.

Reliance Communications, which last month received government approval to launch services on the dominant GSM platform nationwide, has begun talks with Ericsson (ERICb.ST), Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) and Motorola Inc (MOT.N) for the order, the paper said.

"RCom is talking about a contract that could be for as many as 70 million lines and it is a tough customer," the paper cited a senior executive at a European vendor as saying.

A spokesman for Reliance Communications did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

While the contract could be worth $80 a line, Reliance Communications -- which already operates CDMA services in 21 of India's 23 telecom zones -- was pushing to keep the per line cost at around $50, it cited an analyst as saying. (Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Mark Williams)