Ericsson expands Bharti outsourcing contract — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Includes rural networks} Ericsson expands Bharti outsourcing contract

18 Feb 2005 at 04:52 GMT Timo Poropudas

Ericsson has expanded the existing managed services and GSM/GPRS infrastructure agreement with Bharti -Tele-Ventures (BTVL) to cover two additional regions on the Indian sub-continent. This brings the total number of regions covered by Ericsson to 15. Ericsson will provide Bharti with complete network infrastructure, including locally produced Ericsson core and access network elements. Based on Bharti’s capacity requirements, Ericsson provides design, deployment, integration, optimization and management of Bharti’s network in the regions, called circles of Assam, North East. Earlier in February 2004, Ericsson had announced similar agreements for 10 existing and 3 new circles of Bharti, the scope included the company’s existing circles of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP (west), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, Karnataka & Kerala and the three new circles of Rajasthan, UP (East) & Jammu & Kashmir. At an overall level, the contract also includes an expanded managed services scope of site maintenance for all the 15 circles covered by Ericsson. The addition of new circles kickstarts Bharti’s initiatives to provide cellular connectivity in the rural areas of India.