By IANS
New Delhi : India's leading private telecom operator Bharti Airtel Wednesday awarded a network expansion deal worth $2 billion to global wireless network major Ericsson in its effort to roll out telecom services in rural India.
Ericsson, under the two-year contract, would seek to enhance Airtel's existing 15 circles in the country as well as optimise and manage its prepaid platform across 23 circles.
"This is one of the biggest deals ever bagged by Ericsson and it is an important part of realising Bharti's vision of a converged network and of expanding in rural India to introduce innovative services," Mats Granryd, managing director, Ericsson India, told a press conference here.
Even though the contract covers only the 2G (second generation) technology of mobile telephony, the network would have the capacity to support 3G (third generation) services as well, officials said.