3G ready to roll out, Vodafone eyes NSN-Ericsson
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 07 September 2010, 21:16 IST
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3G ready to roll out, Vodafone eyes NSN-Ericsson
Bangalore: Vodafone Essar is zeroing in on possible tie ups with the existing vendors Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) for implementation of its 3G services in India, a deal estimated roughly at $500 million. NSN and Ericsson had been its former partners at the time of 2G implementation. Vodafone had grabbed 3G services license for 9 circles in the spectrum auction. They include UP (East), Maharashtra, Delhi, Mumbai, West Bengal, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata and Gujarat. It is estimated that the global telecom equipment vendors will acquire nearly $3 billion in the in the first wave of 3G rollouts in India. The winners of 3G airwaves in India are Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata Teleservices and the equipment contracts as a whole from these telecos will collectively worth $3 billion. Tata Teleservices has already announced Chinese vendor Huawei as its ally for five circles while Nokia Siemens Networks has bagged the contract for the remaining four circles. Bharti Airtel is expected to announce its 3G expansion contract soon and its existing vendors Ericsson and Nokia Siemens are frontrunners to bag the deal which is estimated to be in the range of $700 million. Idea Cellular is said to be in talks with their existing vendors like Nokia-Siemens Networks, Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE for 3G rollouts in 11 circles. The high costs of 3G spectrum had resulted in the industry opting for 'massive' sharing of networks, optic fibre and other resources to keep rollout costs to a minimum . It is said that 3G deployment will be limited to the top cities in the first phase.

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