Monday, September 3, 2007

India's Bharti Airtel Selects ECI for Optical Expansion

Bharti Airtel has selected ECI Telecom to supply equipment for their nationwide optical network expansion. The one-year contract covers deployment of ECI's XDM Converged Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP). These expansions allow Bharti to add new services, such as broadband data, voice and leased lines, while supporting more subscribers. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Airtel recently became the first Indian mobile service provider joining the exclusive club of global service providers with more than 40 million customers from a single-country. In order to manage and handle this continual growth, Bharti Airtel selected ECI's optical solutions to increase their network capacity from 2.5G to 10G and to Metro DWDM, and to expand their current network beyond the existing footprint.

http://www.ecitele.com

  • In July 2007, India's Bharti Airtel awarded a contracted valued at US$2 billion to Ericsson. The deal is described as one of the world's largest network expansion projects. It is Ericsson's largest deal to date. The two-year contract covers an expansion of Bharti Airtel's GSM/EDGE network as well as capacity management. Specifically, Ericsson will design, plan, deploy, optimize and manage Bharti Airtel's GSM network across 15 circles in India as well as for its pan-India pre-paid platform across 23 circles. In addition, Ericsson will also deliver pan-India integrated device management solutions, enabling usage of advanced data services by all mobile customers across retail and enterprise segments.


  • Also in July 2007, Bharti Airtel Limited awarded a contract valued at approximately US$900 million to Nokia Siemens Networks for an expansion of its mobile, fixed and Intelligent Network platforms. Specifically, Nokia Siemens Networks will expand Airtel's GSM network in eight circles; its National Long Distance and International Long Distance network with 1.8 million Next Generation Network (NGN) ports -- the largest ever NGN contract in the country -- and its International Calling Card prepaid service capacity by 4.5 million news users. The GSM and NGN expansions are planned over two years and the International calling cards expansion over three years.