Georgia's Open Net retenders $6.5m IP/MPLS equipment contract

Open Net, the non-commercial legal entity that builds Georgia's state-backed rural fibre network, has invited international bids for IP/MPLS active equipment, phase 2, under the World Bank-financed Log-In Georgia project, a specific procurement notice published on 14 October says.

The World Bank's procurement record gives an estimated contract value of $6.5 million and a bid deadline of 16 November 2026, and the notice says the contract will be jointly financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB). The same contract, with the same title and estimate, was first advertised on 25 June 2025. The October notice does not say why the tender is being run again, whether the first round was cancelled, or whether bidders from 2025 may resubmit. It gives no quantities: those are in the bidding document on Georgia's state procurement portal.

What Open Net is buying

The goods include aggregation routers, access devices, core routers, air conditioners, 48V power supplies, environmental monitoring systems, a network operations centre and firewalls, with installation, configuration and warranty, the notice says. Bids are submitted electronically in two envelopes, a technical part and a password-protected financial part opened at least 10 business days after the technical results are notified. Evaluation weights price at 70 per cent and rated technical and non-price criteria at 30 per cent, and no domestic margin of preference applies. The successful bidder's beneficial ownership must be disclosed in the award notice.

Active equipment is what turns the passive fibre into a working wholesale network. As of 2025, 18 internet service providers and three mobile operators were providing services over Open Net infrastructure, a statement from the Communications Commission (ComCom) dated 22 September says. The statement also lists fibre backbone completed in Chiatura, Sachkhere, Terjola, Tkibuli, Chkhorotsku, Khobi, Senaki, part of Tsalenjikha and Zugdidi. The tender notice itself does not say how many sites phase 2 covers or when the equipment must be live.

The fibre contracts behind it

The passive build continues in parallel. On 21 August the World Bank published the award of the phase 4 Kakheti-Tianeti section to L&K of Rustavi and BUILD-7 of Tbilisi for GEL 16,924,630, with a duration of 450 days from a notification of award dated 31 July. The notice lists the evaluated prices of the other bidders: China's Hengtong Optic-Electric at GEL 22,000,000, Kazakhstan's BT-Signal at GEL 24,319,221.14, Türkiye's MBD Insaat at GEL 24,099,970 and HGC Electric at GEL 23,974,504, and Georgian bidders including NSYSTEM at GEL 19,548,320. The winning price was about 13 per cent below the next lowest evaluated bid, from Türkiye's Arsen Elektrik at GEL 19,514,256.20, on Backhaul's arithmetic.

Three other phase 4 sections, Kvemo Kartli, Tbilisi-Marneuli-Tsalka and Tsalka-Akhalkalaki-Akhaltsikhe, were awarded in June, the World Bank's project record shows, and an engineering supervision contract for the Khulo-Akhaltsikhe-Borjomi works was awarded on 24 August. Earlier phases in the same record include Mestia in phase 2 and Shida Kartli, Zestaponi-Kharagauli and Khulo-Adigeni in phase 3.

What the notices do not say

The tender notice cites loan 9161-GE, while the phase 4 award cites loan 98630, and neither document explains how the two World Bank loans and the EIB co-financing are divided. None of the notices gives a completion date for the network as a whole or the wholesale prices Open Net will charge operators. A separate World Bank-financed contract in Georgia, for routers and switches for the National Agency for Public Registry, went to Green Systems of Tbilisi for GEL 470,371.98 on 29 September under an agriculture and land project, the award notice shows; it is not part of Log-In Georgia.

The next date is 16 November, when the technical envelopes for phase 2 are due to be opened.