"As per the contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Bharti's Airtel networks in the circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar (including Jharkhand) and Orissa for a period of three years," a statement from Nokia said.
Nokia's managed capacity expansion will further help Airtel cover more than 5,000 towns, up from 2,700 across India.
The phased expansion into these towns and villages starts immediately and is likely to be completed by March 2006, Nokia said, adding that the expansion would double Bharti's network capacity, providing reduced congestion, seamless coverage and enhanced quality to Bharti's subscribers.
"As part of the contract, Nokia will continuously deliver radio and core network and services based on Bharti's capacity requirements, delivering a cost-efficient rollout of on-demand capacity," it added.
Commenting on the contract, Manoj Kohli, president, mobility, Bharti Tele-ventures, said, "This is a step towards expansion of mobile communication services in the rural areas."
Bharti had recently offered over Rs 1,200 crore (Rs 12 billion) contract to equipment supplier Ericsson in June and about Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) outsourcing contract to four BPO companies for handling Bharti's call centre operations.
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