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Close on the heels of striking three major outsourcing deals with Ericsson, IBM and Nokia totalling over $1400 million, Bharti Tele Ventures on Thursday awarded another $50 million contract to Siemens to build and manage AirTel networks in three circles.
The contract has been signed for the circles of Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal for a period of three years.
The three-year service agreement with Siemens is towards management, maintenance, quality assurance and capacity expansion of the AirTel network in these three circles, the company said in a statement.
The initiative will result in providing congestion-free networks with seamless coverage and enhanced quality in over 150 towns and cities in these circles and will benefit more than 500,000 AirTel subscribers there.
The value for supply and services is projected at about $50 million, the company said.
While the agreement will ensure that Bharti would have wider coverage and significantly improved quality of service, BTVL would also be able to leverage the economies of scale, thereby resulting in improved cash flows, Manoj Kohli, president, mobility, BTVL said.
Earlier this year, Bharti signed a $400 million deal with Ericsson for a period of three years for managed services and network infrastructure.
In March, the company had given a 10-year IT outsourcing contract to IBM valued at $750 million.
In May, Bharti signed a $275 million deal with Nokia for building, managing and maintaining its network in three circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat.
This deployment will enable Bharti to offer world class network quality and services to its end customers, W Schachermeier, MD, Siemens Public Communications Networks Ltd, said.
As part of the agreement, Siemens will deliver equipment and services based on Bharti's capacity requirements, improving efficiency by eliminating overlap and duplication of roles between two companies as well as securing cost-efficient rollout and provision on demand capacity.
It also provides for taking over close to 50 Bharti employees by Siemens.