Tata Tele teams up with Nokia Siemens for GSM rollout

Tata Teleservices Ltd has selected Nokia Siemens Networks as one of the main vendors for its pan-India GSM network rollout to manage network for a five-year period, Nokia Siemens said in release.

''Managed services form just one portion of the vast scope of the deal - the complete services outlay includes local supplies, network planning, project management, network roll-out and systems integration activities across the national network,'' the release said.

''As we gear up for our GSM launch, the need of the hour is to provide quick time-to-market services that ensure better network quality and uptime. In keeping with this mission, we feel suitably aligned to Nokia Siemens Networks, which, with its massive services set-up in the country, can provide us the required support,'' said Anil Sardana, managing director of Tata Teleservices Limited.

TTSL will also deploy the company's packet core solution, including the Flexi Intelligent Service Node, for all 22 circles in the country, enabling it to offer ubiquitous mobile Internet access across subscriber segments.

''It is always greatly satisfying when we sign up a new customer, but this partnership with TTSL is all the more special for us. Not only does this partnership allow us to work with one of the most prestigious names in Indian corporate history, but being selected for TTSL's GSM launch also considerably strengthens our dominance across the Indian telecom landscape. We are honored with the trust they have placed in us and will surely live up to their expectations,'' said Michael Kuehner, Nokia Siemens Networks' India head.

Nokia Siemens Networks will be responsible for GSM services across a majority of TTSL's 22 telecom circles in India.

Tata Teleservices Limited, along with Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited, operates in more than 7,000 towns across 20 circles i.e. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Delhi NCR, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Kolkata, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, RoWB and Assam. Tata Indicom has a customer base of over 30 million.