Ericsson to sign $1.5 bln India Bharti deal -paperIndia’s Bharti Airtel Ltd. is set to sign a three-year, $1.5 billion network outsourcing deal with Sweden’s Ericsson . Ericsson will be entrusted with design, planning, supply, installation, commissioning and upgrading of Bharti Airtel network in 15 telecom circles.
A spokesman for Bharti, India’s top mobile services firm, could not be immediately reached for comment.
Last week, Bharti said it was in talks with telecom equipment maker Ericsson for a network expansion deal after it signed a similar contract worth $900 million with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) .
In August last year, Ericsson had won an estimated $1 billion contract to expand and upgrade Bharti’s telecom network and to supply services.
India’s telecom services firms such as Bharti and Reliance Communications are rapidly rolling out networks across the country to tap the vast rural population as growth in urban areas starts to plateau.
Indian cellular providers added more than 5 million GSM customers in May, taking the user base to 130.6 million in the world’s fastest-growing cellular market.
