Bharti Airtel inks USD 400 million network expansion contract with Nokia

Bharti Airtel Ltd on October 31, 2006 has announced the signing of an estimated US$ 400 million contract with Nokia to expand its managed GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks in eight Airtel circles and deploy a pan India WAP solution across its networks.

As per the three year contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Airtel networks to cover all towns and cities in the eight telecom circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Orissa, Kolkata, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh (including Chattisgarh). The network monitoring operations will be carried out from Nokia’s state-of-the-art Global Network Services Center in Chennai.

Nokia will also deploy its WAP solution across Airtel’s national network to enhance its mobile packet core network capabilities. The WAP gateway to be implemented by Nokia shall enable easy usage of data services, thereby increasing the consumption of content on the Airtel network. Nokia will provide consulting services and integrate the WAP gateway into a multi-vendor environment.

Nokia will deploy the latest radio and core network equipment including softswitch, flexi base stations and mini-Ultrasite base stations and provide services based on the Company’s capacity requirements, delivering a cost-efficient rollout of on-demand capacity. The contract also has stringent service level agreements and performance metrics for both parties which are designed to provide consistently high quality services to subscribers and continuously enhance the user experience.

Mr Manoj Kohli, President of the Company said, "Our network leadership across India is a critical driver in the Bharti Airtel success story. Our partnership with Nokia reinforces our commitment to this cause and Nokia will provide us the latest technology and expertise to drive growth in the latent market in Eastern India and rapidly expand our coverage in Western parts of India."

Source : Equity Bulls

Keywords