Bharti, Nokia ink Rs 580 cr deal

Bharti Tele-Ventures today entered into a Rs 580-crore deal with Nokia to expand its network in eight circles. Nokia will assist Airtel cover more than 5,000 towns in addition to 2,700 cities already in its fold.

"As per the contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Bharti's Airtel networks in the circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar (including Jharkhand) and Orissa for a period of three years," a statement from Nokia said.

The company release added that the expansion would double Bharti's network capacity, providing reduced congestion and seamless coverage. The phased expansion into these towns and villages would start immediately and was likely to be completed by March 2006, Nokia said.

"As part of the contract, Nokia will continuously deliver radio and core network and services based on Bharti's capacity requirements, delivering a cost-efficient rollout of on-demand capacity," it added.

Commenting on the contract, Manoj Kohli, president, mobility, Bharti Tele-ventures, said, "This is a step towards expansion of mobile communication services in the rural areas."

This is not the first outsourcing deal for Bharti. It recently offered a contract of over Rs 1,200 crore to equipment supplier Ericsson in June and about a Rs 1,000-crore outsourcing contract to four BPO companies for handling Bharti's call centre operations.

In 2004, Bharti had signed a $ 275-million contract with Nokia for supplying equipment for two years and rolling out mobile services for three years across the five circles.

For the capacity augmentation programme drawn up by the contract signed today, Nokia would be deploying its connect GSM solution for expanding the network's coverage in rural areas in a cost-effective manner.

This included solutions for radio access, the core network, the network management system and services that would reduce the cost of ownership for Bharti, allowing it to optimally target the low average revenue per user customer, the release said.

"Our extensive managed services capability combined with our comprehensive and high quality product portfolio makes a strong business case for Bharti to provide affordable mobile services to these rural customers," Ashish Chowdhary, Nokia's country director, said in a statement.