BSNL selects Nortel for GSM expansion

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 01:51 IST
Printer Print Email Email
Mumbai: Nortel, which delivers communications capabilities, has struck a $100 million GSM expansion deal with India's largest telecom service provider BSNL. The expansion focuses on the southern area of the country. BSNL, with over 20 million cellular subscribers, is actively growing its network reach and capacity to meet increased demand for mobile telephony services across the country. The company chose Nortel to support this southern GSM network expansion with a very aggressive roll-out schedule, based on Nortel's previous track record in helping BSNL establish the widest reach of any wireless network provider in India. With this selection, BSNL can build on, and maximize its existing network investment and rapidly extend mobile services to new subscribers. "Since 2004, Nortel has worked closely with BSNL in rolling out mobile service to seven million customers in the southern and eastern parts of India while ensuring the network is cost-effective and implemented according to BSNL?s aggressive timelines," said Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director, Nortel India "India represents an enormous opportunity for Nortel in the carrier space, with its consistently high growth rates and increasingly mobile population," said Richard Lowe, president, Carrier Networks, Nortel. "Nortel offers an immediate solution for today's high-growth markets, and a clear migration path to 4G as operators across India eye the evolution of their networks to offer higher-bandwidth services in the near future," he added. Nortel's deployment of the BSNL network expansion is already underway and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

siliconindia