Alcatel wins GSM contract in India

By siliconindia staff writer   |   Thursday, 29 April 2004, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE:ALA), has announced that it has won an order from ITI, India’s largest telecom equipment company, for the supply and installation of GSM lines to the state-owned BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd), the main Indian operator in terms of phone lines and coverage. This contract, valued at about 65 million euros, covers the expansion of BSNL network in Western India including Gujrat, Maharashtra, MP and Chattisgarh. This order is the first one following the signature, also announced today, of a long-term collaboration agreement between Alcatel and ITI for the production and deployment in India of Alcatel’s Evolium™ latest generation GSM solution in order to meet the growing demand for mobile solutions in the country. In the first phase of this agreement, ITI will deploy the GSM equipment produced by Alcatel, such as wireless switches and base stations. Within a few months, ITI will acquire Alcatel GSM technology to manufacture this equipment under the Alcatel license at the ITI plant in Mankapur. YK Pandey, Chairman and managing director of ITI declared, “Through our alliance with Alcatel over the past 20 years, ITI has been able to play a key role in building the telecom infrastructure in India”. He added, “Now, with the introduction of Alcatel’s industry-leading GSM technology, we are able to enter the mobile segment and provide a complete portfolio of mobile solutions to our public and private telecom operators . “ Ravi Sharma, managing director of Alcatel in India stated, “ India is currently a booming telecom market and it is the right time for Alcatel to develop in India, a manufacturing and distribution base for servicing both the local and the regional markets.” He added, “The long-term collaboration between Alcatel and ITI will contribute to make India self reliant for GSM equipment and will enable Indian mobile operators such as BSNL to provide high quality services to their subscribers.”