Bharti Airtel assigns $1 billion network expansion to Ericsson

Our Corporate Bureau
24 August 2006

Mumbai: Bharti Airtel today announced the signing of an estimated $1 billion network expansion contract with Ericsson. The contract will enable Bharti Airtel to rapidly expand its mobile services footprint further and reach out to all towns and cities in 15 telecom circles in the country.

The three-year service contract with Ericsson is towards the design, planning, supply, installation and commissioning of Airtel networks in these circles.

Ericsson will also upgrade the network with mobile softswitch (media gateway and MSC servers), the solution that paves the way to an all-IP network. This will enable Bharti Airtel to reduce operational costs and introduce new services in a cost-efficient manner.

The scope of the agreement extends to 15 Airtel circles of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP (West), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka, Kerala, Rajasthan, UP (East), Jammu & Kashmir, Assam and North East.

Manoj Kohli, president, Bharti Airtel said, "At Bharti, it has been our endeavour to find innovative business models to deliver better customer experience. Our partnership with Ericsson is testament to this belief as it allows us to focus on delivering better customer experience even as we leverage the world class expertise of our partners to roll out our networks across all census towns by March 2007. In addition, we are also sourcing next generation products that will allow us to deliver innovative products & services to our customers."

This partnership will allow Airtel to channel its resources and expertise to its core areas of product innovation, value added services, marketing, branding and pricing, while simultaneously providing world class mobile services by leveraging Ericsson's world class expertise in network management.