Nokia bags $141 m BSNL contract

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has awarded a comprehensive GSM/Edge and GPRS network expansion project in North India to Nokia.

The expansion project is valued at $141 million. According to the agreement reached on Friday, Nokia will provide core and radio network equipment and along with a wide range of services to BSNL, for its expansion project.

BSNL hopes to add capacity for two million new connections in Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh (east and west circles), Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan, on completion of the project.

"This is an important network expansion for BSNL as we strive to offer the best network coverage and capacity to our subscribers," said G S Grover, the BSNL director, commercial & marketing, soon after signing the agreement.

Speaking on the occasion, Ashish Chowdhary, country head (networks) Nokia India, said that the company valued the contract and was "delighted to strengthen its successful co-operation with BSNL".

"This expansion will provide BSNL the ability to enhance its network coverage and capacity, apart from displaying Nokia's expertise in the range of services offered," Chowdhary said.

BSNL has the third-largest mobile subscriber base in India after Reliance Infocomm and Bharti. In the GSM segment it comes in at No.2 after Bharti.

According to Chowdhary, services play an important role in the contract, including complete network planning and optimisation, infrastructure design, supply and implementation, and commissioning as well as systems integration and Nokia's over-the-air (OTA) device management solution.

This expansion was an extension of a $284 million GSM/Edge and GPRS contract signed by Nokia and BSNL in 2004, Chowdhary added. Nokia's operations in India include networks and terminals sales divisions, three R&D units and an upcoming manufacturing facility in Chennai, that will produce both terminals and GSM infrastructure equipment. Nokia also plans to open a global networks operation centre in India by the end of the year.

BSNL, India's No.1 telecommunications company and the largest public sector undertaking with authorised share capital of $3.6 billion and a net worth of $13.85 billion, has over 42 million subscribers across 5,000 towns and almost 12.5 million GSM cellular subscribers.