NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom company by revenue and customers, has ended its dependence on western vendors by awarding China’s Huawei a part of the telecom gear contract to supply 3G equipment.
Sweden’s Ericsson and Finland-headquartered Nokia Siemens Networks have been Bharti’s exclusive telecom gear partners in India since early 2000. Ericsson manages Bharti's networks in 15 circles while Nokia Siemens handles the rest. So far, the Indian operator has signed five major outsourcing deals each with these companies. India has 22 telecom circles.
The Chinese equipment major will provide 3G equipment to Bharti in 3 circles, an executive aware of the development told ET. Huawei will also manage and maintain Airtel’s networks in these regions, the executive added.
On Monday, Bharti said that it had chosen Ericsson India, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei Technologies as network partners to launch 3G services in India without divulging details. Another executive aware of the contract said that Ericsson would supply equipment in seven circles and Nokia Siemens in three.
As per industry estimates, Bharti’s contract size will be to the tune of $700 million, but company executives declined to comment.
Bharti has some experience of working with other equipment vendors. It had earlier awarded the contract to build, maintain and manage its networks in Sri Lanka to Chinese equipment major Huawei after a competitive bidding process.
In the 3G auctions that ended in May, Bharti Airtel had bagged third generation (3G) airwaves that allows it to offer high-end services such as video conferencing and ultra fast internet on mobiles in 13 of the 22 telecom circles in the country.
It had paid around Rs 12,300 crore for these airwaves. The company is expected to rollout 3G services by late December. This deal comes within two days of Sistema Shyam choosing China’s Huawei and ZTE along with Ericsson to manage its networks across India.
The two Chinese vendors are also learnt to have bagged the contract to rollout 3G services for Reliance Communications across 13 circles. Earlier this month, Tata Teleservices had said that Huawei would implement the initiation of 3G services for the company in five circles while Nokia Siemens Networks has bagged the contract for the remaining four circles.
The combined deal size for the Tatas is just under $300 million, an industry executive tracking the equipment contracts said.
For Ericsson and NSN, this marks their second major 3G contract in India. As reported earlier by ET, an industry executive with direct knowledge of the development have confirmed that Vodafone Essar has awarded a 3G equipment order worth about $500 million with Ericsson and Nokia Siemens, who are its existing vendors.
An analysis by ET reveals that global telecom equipment vendors will garner some $3 billion in the first wave of 3G rollouts in India, making India the largest market for gear makers in 2010.
Bharti adds Huawei to vendor list for 3G - The Economic Times
