Bharti Airtel, the country's second-largest telecom services company, is close to inking a deal with Ericsson for managing and expanding its network. |
The deal, which is expected to be valued between $1 billion and $2 billion, will be announced in a few days. |
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The deal with Ericsson closely follows the telecom operator coming closer to winning a scaled down version of the controversial Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) mega-GSM order. |
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Ericsson, which was the lowest bidder for the 45.5 million lines order, is expected to be called for price renegotiation by the BSNL board but for a much smaller order now. |
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When asked about the deal, Akhil Gupta, joint managing director of Bharti Airtel, merely said "no comment". Ericsson executives also declined to comment. |
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The deal is believed to be spread over three years and will involve implementing and managing the GSM major's network in 15 circles in the country. |
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A few weeks ago, Bharti Airtel had awarded a $900 million (Rs 3,690 crore) network expansion contract to global communications services provider Nokia Siemens Networks. |
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Bharti is not new to Ericsson. In June 2005, the Swedish company had signed a $250 million deal for managing capacity in rural India for Bharti Airtel networks. |
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