Nokia Siemens bags Rs 300-crore Aircel contract

NEW DELHI: Nokia Siemens Networks on Wednesday announced that it has bagged a Rs 300-crore network expansion contract from Aircel Cellular (a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Maxis Group) to build and operate a greenfield GSM network in Kolkata. The contract includes supply of GSM/EDGE equipment, implementation, project management and managed services, such as operating and maintaining the network infrastructure, the company said.

The deal comes within days of the network major bagging a $500-million network expansion contract with Idea Cellular.

The two-year deal with Idea envisages that Nokia Siemens set up GSM, general packet radio service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) networks, which will help cellular company to expand its coverage across six circles — Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (east), Uttar Pradesh (west), Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Last year, Nokia had bagged a three-year $400 million network expansion contract from Bharti Airtel. Aircel’s contract with Nokia Siemens follows its recent allocation of 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to begin services in Kolkata.

Aircel aims to roll out services in Kolkata by the year-end and also plans to make the city its regional headquarters for the eastern region. (Bharti Airtel too has decided to set up its eastern regional telecom hub in Kolkata.)
Commenting on the partnership with Nokia Siemens, Maxis CEO and Aircel director said: “Wednesday’s announcement is a critical juncture in our network roll-out strategy, as Nokia Siemens Networks have joined the consortium of our prime network partners.

The Kolkata roll-out completes our East/North-East geographic footprint, besides lending us its strategic commercial importance in the region.” Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy latest state-of–the-art equipment like Flexi base stations, mini-ultra base stations, 3GPP-based mobile softswitching solution, including MSC Servers and Media Gateways, the company said in a statement.

The network will be supported by the multi-technology, multi-vendor NetAct network and service management system, and will be ready for commercial operations by December 2007, it added.