Nortel has confirmed that it recently won an agreement with India''s BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.), valued at over US$100 million, to expand coverage in the southern area of the country. We announced the contract at the beginning of the month, prior to Nortel''s confirmation.
Motorola are also understood to have a similar value contract covering the same area, although they have not confirmed this yet.
"Since 2004, Nortel has worked closely with BSNL in rolling out mobile service to some 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. "This new contract award reflects BSNL''s confidence in Nortel to achieve these targets, and is further proof that in one of the most competitive, dynamic and fastest-growing markets in the world, Nortel''s solutions meet our customers'' requirements."
Nortel''s deployment of the BSNL network expansion is already underway and is expected to be completed towards the end of 2008.
BSNL ended last year with just under 33 million mobile subscribers according to figures from the Mobile World database, and has been adding an average of 800,000 new subscribers per month. The company has previously said that it is aiming for 100 million subscribers by 2010.
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