Nortel wins $100m BSNL India network expansion deal

BSNL, with over 20 million cellular subscribers and a 25% market share in the telecoms market, is actively growing its network reach and capacity to meet demand for mobile telephony services across the country. BSNL said the agreement will enable it to build on its existing network investment and extend mobile services to new subscribers.

"This new contract reflects BSNL's confidence in Nortel to achieve targets, and is further proof that in one of the most competitive, dynamic and fastest-growing markets in the world, Nortel's solutions meet customers' requirements," said Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director at Nortel India.

India is set to become the world's second largest mobile market after China, overtaking the US, due to the monthly addition of over 8 million subscribers in the past few months. BSNL faces stiff competition from Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, and Tata Communications. With other companies including Virgin Mobile and Maxis Communications also vying for a share in the market, BSNL has been forced to follow aggressive expansion schedules and timelines.

The need for broadband wireless access is also developing rapidly, and Nortel said it is actively conducting trials and deployments of various next-generation technologies. It said deployment of the BSNL network expansion is already underway and is expected to be completed toward the end of 2008.