Ericsson wins a 5G contract with Bharti Airtel in India

Bharti Airtel awarded its first 5G contract in the country to Ericsson. 

Airtel will deploy power-efficient 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and solutions from the Ericsson Radio System and Ericsson microwave mobile transport solutions. Ericsson will provide 5G connectivity in 12 circles (geographical regions in India) for Bharti Airtel. Deployments are to get underway this month.

Gopal Vittal, MD and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel, says: “As our trusted, long-term technology partner, we are delighted to award our first 5G contract to Ericsson for 5G deployment in India. 5G presents a game-changing opportunity to drive the digital transformation of industries, enterprises and the socio-economic development of India. With our 5G network, we aim to deliver the full benefits of 5G connectivity, fuel India’s journey towards a digital economy and strengthen the country’s position on the world stage.”

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, says: “We look forward to supporting Bharti Airtel with its deployment of 5G in India. With Ericsson’s unrivaled global 5G deployment experience, we will help Bharti Airtel to deliver the full benefits of 5G to Indian consumers and enterprises, while seamlessly evolving the Bharti network from 4G to 5G. 5G will enable India to realize its Digital India vision and foster inclusive development of the country.” 

Ericsson notes that it now serves 125 live 5G networks in 55 countries. Around 50 percent of the world's 5G traffic outside China is now carried over Ericsson's radio networks.

Nokia wins 45% share of Bharti Airtel's 5G RAN

Wednesday, August 03, 2022  Bharti, India, Nokia  

Bharti Airtel awarded a multi-year contract to Nokia for 5G radio access network (RAN) deployment.  The companies said the contract represents approximately a 45% share of Bharti's planned 5G RAN rollout.  Nokia has been a supplier to Bharti for the past 18 years.Under this contract, Nokia will provide equipment from itsAirScale portfolio, including modular and scalable baseband as well as high-capacity 5G massive MIMO radios.This multi-year...

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Nokia wins 45% share of Bharti Airtel's 5G RAN

Bharti Airtel awarded a multi-year contract to Nokia for 5G radio access network (RAN) deployment.  The companies said the contract represents approximately a 45% share of Bharti's planned 5G RAN rollout.  Nokia has been a supplier to Bharti for the past 18 years.

Under this contract, Nokia will provide equipment from itsAirScale portfolio, including modular and scalable baseband as well as high-capacity 5G massive MIMO radios.

This multi-year deal follows the recently concluded 5G spectrum auctions and allocation of pan-India spectrum to Bharti Airtel, supporting their ambition to take India into the 5G era.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO of Bharti Airtel said, “We are pleased to continue our partnership with Nokia and take India into the 5G era. Airtel has always believed that the real leverage of 5G technology will come from the capacity to build an ecosystem across devices, networks, applications, and services. As mobile penetration increases across India, mobile telecom services will have a transformative impact across all sectors of the economy. Airtel is investing in the right areas and working with the right partners to serve our customers even better.”

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO at Nokia said, “This landmark deal reinforces our long-standing partnership with Bharti Airtel. We are delighted that they have chosen Nokia's best-in-class AirScale baseband and radio portfolio to deliver superior 5G performance in one of the world's largest networks. I look forward to our continued successful long-term collaboration in this vital and dynamic market.”

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Bharti Airtel demos upcoming 5G service in Hyderabad

Bharti Airtel demonstrated for the first time in India its upcoming LIVE 5G service over a commercial network.

Airtel's demo, which occurred in Hyderabad, ran over its existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800 MHz band using NSA (Non Stand Alone) mode. Airtel used dynamic spectrum sharing to operate 5G and 4G concurrently within the same spectrum block. 

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel said: “I am very proud of our engineers who have worked tirelessly to showcase this incredible capability in Tech City, Hyderabad today. Every one of our investments is future proofed as this game changing test in Hyderabad proves. With Airtel being the first operator to demonstrate this capability, we have shown again that we have always been the first in India to pioneer new technologies in our quest for empowering Indians everywhere.”

“We believe India has the potential to become a global hub for 5G innovation. To make that happen we need the eco system to come together – applications, devices and network innovation. We are more than ready to do our bit.” added Gopal Vittal.

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India's Airtel renews managed services contract with Ericsson

Bharti Airtel =has renewed its agreement with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) to provide pan-India managed network operations through Ericsson Operations Engine.

The three-year deal will see Airtel launching Ericsson Operation Engine during 2020. Ericsson will deploy the latest automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance Airtel’s mobile network performance and customer experience. Ericsson will also manage Airtel’s network operations center and field maintenance activities across India. Ericsson will also provide Network Optimization Services, combining multi-vendor networks expertise with its state-of-the-art machine learning/AI-enabled Cognitive Software Suite. This will deliver a better customer experience and ensure a superior return from Airtel’s deployed network assets.

The agreement builds on the 25-year collaboration between Ericsson and Airtel in India.

Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer, Bharti Airtel, says: “We are pleased to strengthen our deep partnership with Ericsson as part of our vision to build a future ready network that enables world-class experience for our customers. We are confident these new technologies will enable us to serve the emerging data requirements of customers in a digitally connected India.”

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Bharti Airtel picks Nokia for 4G/5G

Bharti Airtel awarded a multi-year agreement to Nokia for the deployment of its SRAN solution across 9 circles1 in India. The deal includes approximately 300,000 radio units deployed across several spectrum bands, including 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz and 2300 Mhz.

The deployment will expand the capacity of Airtel's 4G network and lay the foundation for providing 5G connectivity in the future. Deployment is expected to be completed by 2022.

Nokia will be the sole provider of SRAN in these 9 circles. The deal will also include Nokia’s RAN equipment, including its AirScale Radio Access, AirScale BaseBand and NetAct OSS solution, which will help Airtel to monitor and manage its network effectively. Nokia Global Services will also play a crucial role in the installation, planning and deployment of the project, which will be executed via the cloud-based Nokia Delivery Platform.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia) at Bharti Airtel, said: “Airtel has consistently topped network performance charts in studies conducted by multiple global experts. We are committed to continuously invest in emerging network technologies to provide a best-in-class experience to our customers. This initiative with Nokia is a major step in this direction. We have been working with Nokia for more than a decade now and are delighted to use Nokia’s SRAN products in further improving the capacity and coverage of our network as we prepare for the 5G era.”

Rajeev Suri, President and Chief Executive Officer at Nokia, commented: “This is an important agreement for the future of connectivity in one of the world’s largest telecoms markets and solidifies our position in India. We have worked closely with Bharti Airtel for many years and are delighted to extend this long-standing partnership further. This project will enhance their current networks and deliver best-in-class connectivity to Airtel customers but also lay the foundations for 5G services in the future.”

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Bharti deploys Huawei's microwave for 1 Gbps backhaul links

Bharti India is deploying enhanced MIMO microwave links from Huawei.

The enhanced MIMO solution of 5G microwave will deliver 1Gbps capacity over a single 28Mhz channel.

Bharti India has deployed more than 100 hops of the enhanced MIMO microwave links.

Huawei said that by adding carrier aggregation technology to the enhanced MIMO link can increase capacity to 2Gbps MIMO link with additional 28Mhz spectrum.

Bharti relies heavily on microwave transmission for its network in India.

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Bharti Airtel buys capacity on MENA Cable and TE North Cable Systems

Bharti Airtel reached an agreement with Telecom Egypt under which it will acquire IRUs (Indefeasible Right of Use) on Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA Cable) and TE North Cable Systems.

Specifically, Airtel gets the right to use fiber pairs on MENA Cable from Egypt to India with access to Saudi Arabia and Oman, and other fiber pairs from Egypt towards Italy. It also extends beyond MENA Cable, where Airtel will get the right to use a fiber pair from Egypt to France on TE North along with capacities on SMW5 and AAE1 cable systems. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO – Airtel Business said, “The partnership with Telecom Egypt underlines our commitment to provide world-class service experience to our customers. The partnership including MENA Cable and TE’s network will be a good addition to our global network portfolio and provide us with a high quality and diversified new route to Western Europe and the rest of the world. ”

Ahmed El Beheiry, Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Egypt commented, “Telecom Egypt’s global network was built over the years through investments in consortiums as well as private international submarine cable systems. Our reach and position as an international hub with tens of Tbps lit capacity, makes us the partner of choice for Euro-Asian and Euro-African transit traffic. Telecom Egypt signed the agreement with OTMT to acquire MENA Cable with the aim of capitalizing on the growing traffic from India and Saudi Arabia to Europe and to obtain a new gateway to Europe through Italy. We are pleased to be able to sign the MoU with Airtel as well as to be able to bundle MENA’s assets with existing assets of the TE network. We aim to come back to the market with more details on the MoU and its financial impact once the deal is closed.”

Telecom Egypt acquires MENA cable for $90 million

Saturday, June 02, 2018  Egypt, Mergers And Acquisitions, Subsea  

Telecom Egypt announces that its 50% owned subsidiary, Egyptian International Submarine Cables Company (EISCC), will acquire the Middle East and North Africa Submarine Cable (MENA) for a total value of US$90 million from Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding S.A.E.

Telecom Egypt said the decision to acquire MENA Cable comes in line with its strategy to achieve a short-term return from this investment and to preserve the revenue stream of the submarine cable systems.

MENA Cable is licensed in Egypt and Italy to operate a submarine telecommunications system connecting Europe to the Middle East and South East Asia.

"The decision to acquire MENA Cable is one of the most important steps towards implementing the company’s strategic plan to ensure the sustainability of submarine cable revenues and reinforce the contribution of the USD revenue stream. The new cable will add to Telecom Egypt’s network of submarine cables fortifying TE’s network offering to the maximum number of routes between India and Europe as well as add a new gateway to Europe through Italy," stated Ahmed El Beheiry, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.

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Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers to merge

Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have agreed to combine their operations and properties into a pan-India company with over 163,000 towers across all 22 of the nation's telecom service areas. Indus Towers currently operates in 15 telecom service areas (“Circles”) and Bharti Infratel’s operations are focused on the remaining 7 Circles.

The combined company, which will use the name Indus Towers Limited and be listed on the Indian stock exchanges, will be the largest tower company in the world outside of China.

Indus Towers is currently jointly owned by Bharti Infratel (42%), Vodafone (42%), Idea Group (11.15%) and Providence (4.85%). It is intended that Idea Group will sell its 11.15% shareholding for cash concurrent with the completion of the deal. Vodafone will be issued with 783.1m new shares in the combined company, in exchange for its 42% shareholding in Indus Towers.

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Singtel seeks to increase stake in Bharti Airtel

Singtel will subscribe to new shares in Bharti Telecom under a proposed preferential allotment.

Specifically, Singtel International Investments will be allotted up to 85,450,000 new equity shares in Bharti Telecom at an issue price of INR310 per equity share. This will increase Singtel’s stake in Bharti Telecom by up to 1.7% for an aggregate consideration of approximately INR26.5 billion or S$555.6 million. Through this allotment, Singtel’s economic interest in Airtel will increase by 0.9 percentage point to 39.5%.

Airtel is India’s largest telecommunications company with operations in 16 countries across South Asia and Africa and a customer base of over 390 million. It has been an associate of the Group since Singtel acquired a stake in 2000.

Mr Arthur Lang, CEO International, said, “This is a good opportunity for us to deepen our strategic partnership with Airtel. While there are currently headwinds in India, we take a long-term view of our investment in Airtel which continues to be a strong market leader in a region with rapidly increasing smartphone penetration and mobile data adoption.”

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Bharti deploys Huawei’s CloudAIR

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, has successfully deployed three radio technologies (GSM, UMTS, LTE) on the 900MHz band within an 8.8MHz spectral bandwidth by using Huawei’s CloudAIR.  The three band deployment is a world first on the Huawei platform.

Huawei's CloudAIR allows different radio access technologies to share spectrum resources dynamically instead of using traditional spectrum sharing solutions. Huawei calls this "spectrum cloudification", replacing static allocation with on-demand allocation. In this case, it enables Bharti Airtel’s 900MHz spectrum to serve GSM, UMTS and LTE simultaneously. 

“CloudAIR gives us the ability to deploy LTE within the same 900MHz frequency alongside GSM and UMTS,” said Mr. Abhay Savargaonkar, CTO of Bharti Airtel. “This improves our LTE coverage significantly, which means our customers enjoy superior data experience and HD voice quality even in indoor locations.” 

Since introducing CloudAIR in November 2016, the solution has been deployed in more than 30 commercial networks.

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Bharti Airtel to acquire Tigo Rwanda

Bharti Airtel Limited agreed to acquire Millicom's Rwanda mobile network, which operates under the Tigo Rwanda brand. The companies said the price is approximately 6x 2017 adjusted EBITDA, payable over two years, consisting of a mix of cash, vendor loan note and earn out. Media sources put the price at about US$6 billion.

Tigo Rwanda has about 3.25 million customers. By integrating the assets with its own Airtel Rwanda, Bharti will hold approximately 40% of the market, behind MTN.

Airtel Africa also has operations in 15 other countries, including some acquired properties in Uganda (Warid), Congo B (Warid), Kenya (yu Mobile), and Ghana (Millicom).

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel stated: "Airtel has taken proactive steps in Africa to consolidate and realign the market structure in the last few remaining countries where its operations are lagging on account of lower market share and presence of too many operators. Airtel and Tigo have already merged their operations to create a strong viable entity in Ghana. Today, it has taken yet another important step to acquire Tigo Rwanda to become a profitable and a strong challenger in a two-player market."

Mauricio Ramos, CEO of Millicom, commented: "The sale of our business in Rwanda is in line with our strategy to focus on providing advanced fixed and mobile data services in Latin America. We are very grateful to the government of Rwanda for their support throughout the last eight years, which allowed us to extend digital inclusion to thousands of Rwandans."

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Warburg Pincus buys 20% stake in Bhartin Telemedia

Warburg Pincus will acquire a 20% equity stake in Bharti Telemedia, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel that offers Direct To Home (DTH) satellite service under the Airtel TV brand, for US$350 million. The business unit has approximately 14 million subscribers according to financial filings.

Viraj Sawhney, Managing Director, Warburg Pincus India, is expected to join the Board of Bharti Telemedia.

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Bharti Airtel to acquire Tata and its 42m mobile subscribers

Bharti Airtel, which currently ranks as India’s largest telecommunications services provider, will acquire the Tata Teleservices' Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) and its operations across India in nineteen circles, representing the bulk of India’s population and customer base. The deal is described as a merger that will be conducted on a debt-free and cash-free basis pending regulatory approval.

Key points:

• Tata's 42 million mobile customers and the assets of Tata CMB will be transferred to Bharti Airtel
  
• Tata's 178.5 MHz spectrum (of which 71.3 MHz is liberalised) in the 850, 1800 & 2100 MHz bands will be transferred to Bharti Airtel.
  
• The transaction will also provide Bharti Airtel with an indefeasible right to use (IRU) for part of the existing fibre network of Tata.

Tata and Bharti Airtel agreed to further explore mutual areas of cooperation. Tata is also in initial stages of exploring combination of its Enterprise Business with Tata Communications and its Retail Fixed Line and Broadband business with Tata Sky.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said, “This is a significant development towards further consolidation in the Indian mobile industry and reinforces our commitment to lead India’s digital revolution by offering world-class and affordable telecom services through a robust technology and solid spectrum portfolio. On completion, the proposed acquisition will undergo seamless integration, both on the customer as well as the network side, and further strengthen our market position in several key circles. The customers of Tata will be able to enjoy India’s widest and fastest voice & data network, and bouquet of Airtel’s best-in-class products and services.”

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SK Telecom and Bharti Airtel form Strategic Partnership

SK Telecom, Korea’s largest telecommunications company, and Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications services provider, announced a strategic partnership under which Airtel will leverage SK Telecom’s expertise to build the most advanced telecom network in India.

Areas of collaboration include bespoke software to dramatically improve network experience, leveraging advanced digital tools including machine learning, big data and building customized tools to improve network planning based on every customer’s device experience. The two companies will also collaborate to evolve standards for 5G, NFV, SDN and IoT. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Internet of Things (IoT), and jointly work towards building an enabling ecosystem for the introduction of these technologies in the Indian context.

“SK Telecom is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with Bharti Airtel, a global leading mobile operator,” said Park Jung-ho, the President and CEO of SK Telecom. “SK Telecom will work closely with Bharti to achieve new network innovations so as to deliver a greater value to Bharti’s customers.”

“We are extremely delighted to announce this partnership with the world’s leading operator when it comes to technology understanding and expertise. This partnership will bring a dramatically improved experience to Airtel customers in India by leveraging the expertise of a company that has built one of the best mobile broadband networks in the world,” Said Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Airtel.

http://www.globalskt.com

http://www.airtel.in/

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Bharti Airtel Picks Nokia to expand 4G in 9 Circles

Bharti Airtel has signed a new agreement with Nokia to expand its 4G technology in three new circles in addition to six circles it already serves,  The rollout supports new services that started in September. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Specifically, Nokia will deploy its 4G FDD-LTE & TD-LTE technology across nine of Bharti Airtel's circles in India including the regions of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rest of Bengal, Odisha, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Kerala and UP East, serving major cities such as Lucknow, Ahmendabad, Patna and Siliguri. Nokia will also expand the operator's 3G network in eight of the territories as part of this rollout and modernization of legacy 2G BTS.

http://www.nokia.com

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Bharti Airtel Picks Ericsson for 4G in Delhi

Bharti Airtel, India's leading telecom services provider has chosen Ericsson to roll out a 4G (LTE-FDD) network in Delhi. This four-year agreement marks the first LTE-FDD rollout by Ericsson in Delhi. As part of the contract, Ericsson will provide its multi-standard radio equipment from the Ericsson RBS 6000 base station family for macro and small cell networks. The agreement also includes deployment of Ericsson's LTE RAN software for Bharti Airtel. The solution works seamlessly with the existing 2G and 3G networks deployed by Ericsson. In addition to Delhi, Ericsson has also partnered Bharti Airtel to deploy LTE networks in 4 other circles.

Abhay Savargaonkar, CTO, Bharti Airtel, says: "The Delhi market is currently experiencing a rapid increase in the uptake of data-centric services. As market leaders, we at Airtel are deeply committed towards delivering the best data experience for
smartphone users and have made investment in high speed 4G network to improve the data experience of the customer. We are delighted to partner with Ericsson to offer a world-class 4G experience for our customers in Delhi."

In addition, Bharti Airtel awarded a four-year agreement to Ericsson to expand 3G WCDMA network across eight telecom circles in India. The new agreement includes rollout of 3G services in both UMTS 2100 MHZ and UMTS 900MHz band (in three circles). As part of the contract, Ericsson will supply, install and perform managed services for WCDMA Radio Access Networks (RAN). Ericsson will provide its multi-standard radio equipment from the Ericsson RBS 6000 base station family for macro and small cells. This will enable energy-efficient and cost-effective operations while allowing the operator to meet growing demands of better and faster mobile internet connectivity for the end-users.

http://www.ericsson.com

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Bharti Airtel Selects Nokia for 3G Expansion in 5 Circles

Bharti Airtel awarded a four-year contract to Nokia Networks to roll out its 3G network in 5 new telecom circles and network expansion in 3 existing telecom circles. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the 4-year contract, the company will provide its radio elements and services expertise to power Bharti Airtel’s infrastructure.  The rollout includes Nokia's Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station, its all-IP multicontroller RNC (mcRNC) NetAct, a cloud-ready virtualized OSS, and network planning services.

http://networks.nokia.com/news-events/press-room/press-releases/nokia-networks-inks-4-year-deal-with-bharti-airtel-india-for-3g-network-rollout

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American Tower to Acquire Bharti Airtel's Towers in Nigeria

American Tower agreed to acquire over 4,800 communications towers in Nigeria from Bharti Airtel.

Airtel will be the anchor tenant on the portfolio under a lease with a ten-year initial term.

“We are pleased to announce the launch of our operations in Nigeria while expanding our relationship with Airtel, one of the leading multinational operators in the world,” said Jim Taiclet, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Tower. “With the largest population and economy in Africa and relatively underdeveloped wireless infrastructure, we view Nigeria as a tremendous growth opportunity. Further, we expect this investment to support our long-term objective of generating double-digit AFFO per share growth for our stockholders.”

Commenting on the development, Christian de Faria, MD and Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel Africa, said, “Nigeria is the largest mobile market in Africa and a key one for Airtel. This agreement, which is part of our stated philosophy of promoting infrastructure sharing, will provide us with considerable cost efficiencies and at the same time allows us to sharpen our focus on the customer. American Tower has a proven track record in passive infrastructure management and we look forward to benefitting from the best practices from all other countries it operates in."

http://www.americantower.com

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Nokia Networks Confirms 3G Contract with Bharti Airtel

Bharti Airtel has awarded a 3G contract to Nokia Networks to upgrade its 3G network in the Mumbai, West Bengal and Bihar telecom circles.

The upgrade, which will use Nokia’s latest Single RAN Advanced platform, will be an India-first dual band, dual carrier 3G network implementation of refarmed 900 MHz spectrum paired with Mumbai’s existing 3G network on 2100 MHz. This will enable higher throughput and thus improved 3G services for Bharti Airtel’s customers.

Under the contract, Nokia Networks will supply its Single RAN Advanced platform, based on its energy-efficient Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station**. This multi-standard radio platform is optimal because it will also support Bharti Airtel in its TD-LTE rollout and pave the way to FDD-LTE in the near future. In addition, Nokia Networks will deploy its Flexi Lite Base Station, a small all-in-one base station optimized for indoor and outdoor micro-cell deployments to provide the best coverage in densely crowded areas. Nokia will also supply its extremely compact, highly scalable and flexible multi-technology, all-IP multicontroller RNC (mcRNC).

“This deal bolsters our long-term partnership with Bharti Airtel, and we are committed to helping the operator provide further improved mobile broadband experience for its customers,” said Sandeep Girotra, Vice President and Head of India region, Nokia Networks. “While Nokia’s Single RAN Advanced platform will ensure a reliable 3G mobile broadband connectivity, our comprehensive services will ensure smooth deployment.”

http://networks.nokia.com/

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Bharti Expands i2i Submarine Cable with Ciena

Bharti Airtel Limited has completed a submarine network upgrade of its i2i cable, which connects India to Singapore.

The upgrade uses Ciena’s converged packet optical and network management solutions for a flexible 100G ROADM-based network infrastructure. The deployment includes Ciena’s 6500 platform and leverages a combination of coherent optical technology and wavelength selective switching to enable rapid remote configuration of traffic across the i2i cable. Ciena’s OneControl Unified Management System enables point-and-click service provisioning to enable faster service turn-up and end-to-end visibility of network performance.  Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.ciena.com

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