New Delhi: Ericsson has been awarded a contract by Bharti to supply India''s first nationwide single vendor Intelligent Network (IN) solution and prepaid system to provide functionality such as realtime cost and spending control. The agreement covers all of Bharti''s existing and soon to be launched mobile systems in India. Following the recent Managed Services contract with Ericsson, this deal further reinforces the long-term partnership between the companies covering infrastructure as well as telecom services. The Intelligent Network and charging solution for Bharti is part of an end-to-end solution from Ericsson, where consulting and systems integration services make it all work seamlessly in Bharti''s existing environment.

"Bharti and Ericsson are today taking another step in strengthening the partnership between our two companies, enabling a faster and seamless roll-out of market leading voice and data services. Ericsson''s Intelligent Network based charging solution will enable Bharti to offer converged services to its post and prepaid subscribers in the near future," says Jan Campbell, head of Ericsson market unit India.

"With this agreement Bharti will benefit from a single vendor ''all India'' prepaid service with a consistent feature set and timely implementation of products and features across India," says Manoj Kohli, president-mobility, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd. "The cooperation with Ericsson providing unique bonus and promotion features, comprehensive data charging components and ease of integration will ensure that we maintain and increase our leadership in the Indian prepaid market."

Ericsson is the world leader in Charging System/PrePaid System, with 100 customers across 70 countries using Ericsson solutions. Globally, a substantial share of mobile prepaid users totaling more than 130 million subscribers are connected to Ericsson Charging Systems. Over 250 customers in more than 90 countries have adopted Ericsson''s Intelligent Network solutions with over 500 applications deployed worldwide.