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Bharti Tele to award $400-M order to Ericsson
By siliconindia
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Monday, 09 February 2004, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, India's number one provider of GSM-based mobile services, awarded a $400 million telecom equipment order to Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson, a source said on Monday.
"The three-year agreement with Ericsson will include management maintenance and providing high quality network in present and new telecom circles," a source close to the company told Reuters.
The source said the equipment procured would be used for Bharti's planned expansion in 10 existing and three new telecom circles.
Bharti, 28 per cent owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd is expanding its mobile footprint in six additional circles to take on rivals like Reliance Infocomm Ltd and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
One of the early entrants in India's booming mobile market, Bharti provides wireless services in 15 of the 23 circles making up the domestic telecoms sector, one of the fastest growing markets globally.
Ericsson, the world's biggest producer of mobile networks, has been supplying telecoms gear to Bharti since 1995.
India has more than 30 million mobile phone users and the number is forecast to expand to at least 100 million by 2005.
More than a dozen firms including the Indian mobile unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa conglomerate are fighting for a larger share of India's expanding mobile pie.