Anticipating a quantum leap in subscriber base, CDMA-based telephony services provider Tata Teleservices [Get Quote] Ltd has placed an order for 350,000 handsets with South Korea's second largest mobile manufacturer Pantech & Curitel Communications Inc.

Industry analysts expect the deal may be pegged at Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.20 billion). However, TTSL did not disclose the financial details.

This is one of the major handset deals placed by an Indian company with a single manufacturer, sources said.

Under the contract, Pantech will begin by supplying its PA-711 phones to the domestic telephony major. PA-711 is a CDMA-based handset and has features including Brew and T9 technologies, games, downloadable video player, conferencing facility and usuage time of 180 minutes talktime.

This has also also hailed as one of the slimest handsets rolled out by the company.

The model will be priced at Rs 4,699 in India. This will be followed by addition of other models, including the a sliding phone to be rolled out by Pantech.

The company expects an order of around 50,000 sliding handsets from the Indian telephony major, the price for which is yet to be fixed.

The Korean company expects the unnumbered handset to be a hit in the Indian market.

This could increase the total value of the deal to around Rs 140-150 crore (Rs 1.4-1.5 billion) depending on the price that Pantech is expected to fix for the handsets.

Pantech was aiming to secure more than 10 per cent of the Indian CDMA phone market next year by forging strategic alliances with other mobile service operators.

Pantech CEO Moon S Song, who was in Mumbai on Tuesday, had said, "India is an important market for us and we are committed to offering a wide range of affordable and innovative handsets in the country."

The Tata company, which was a late entrant into the Indian telecom market, is planning to aggressively target the segment and was expecting to notch up a total subscriber base of 7-8 million by the end of this fiscal.

Tata Tele's total subscriber base, including that of its subsidiary Tata Tele (Maharashtra) Ltd, surpassed 6 million on Tuesday.