Ericsson has sealed a network deal worth Rs. 3,350 crore from Airtel. According to reports, the Swedish telecom manufacturer Ericsson has managed to secure a $500 million deal, which equates to Rs. 3350 crore. The company had reportedly secured a three-year contract from Airtel.
As per the deal, Ericsson will manage Airtel’s 2G, 3G and 4G LTE networks in all the 22 telecom circles of India. Moreover, the company has already renewed the partnership with Airtel in 15 telecom circles, where they are offering managed services.
With the latest deal, Ericsson will now manage networks of Airtel in the rest of the circles. Previously, these circles were managed by Finland-based manufacturer Nokia.
The agreement has been designed in such a way that Ericsson will assume complete responsibility for field maintenance, network operations, and network optimisation including passive maintenance.
The company is scheduled to perform work on Airtel-owned mobile sites. Moreover, they will also manage over 150,000 physical sites, which include over 150,000 logical sites across the country.
In a statement, Ericson revealed that the company will take over work from Nokia in new circles either in December or early January. There are reports that both companies are working out the required clause and modalities of the new contract. However, both Ericsson and Nokia declined to respond to our queries.
With over 259.9 million subscribers in India as of September 30, Airtel has already awarded a 4G network deployment contract to Nokia in three new circles. This includes six circles for which the company already provides the services. Meanwhile, the Swedish company also deployed 4G networks for Airtel in few undisclosed circles.
