Telecom network vendor Ericsson today announced its 4G LTE networks deal with Idea Cellular, a mobile services provider in India.
Ericsson has bagged the LTE deal competing with ZTE, Huawei and Nokia.
Idea Cellular, which has more than 170 million subscribers, will use Ericsson network to deploy a 4G LTE networks and to transform its existing 2G and 3G networks.
The Aditya Birla group company will deploy LTE in selected telecom circles which serve more than 40 million mobile subscribers. The LTE network contract covers equipment, software and a range of professional services, including project management, systems integration and supervisory managed services for 4G LTE across selected circles for a period of two years.
Idea Cellular will deploy Ericsson’s RBS 6000 radio base station, which supports GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA and LTE in a single cabinet and upgrade core network and operations support systems (OSS).
The agreement also includes the transformation of Idea Cellular’s existing mobile radio access and core network infrastructure across nine circles for 2G and five circles for 3G.
Himanshu Kapania, CEO of Idea Cellular, said: “We are committed to offering the best possible mobile experience. Transforming our 2G and 3G network will enable us to offer optimized mobile data and better smartphone performance, while our LTE deployments will take the customer experience on Idea Cellular’s networks to the next level.”
Idea Cellular has rolled out its 4G LTE services – on FDD platform — on the 1800 MHz frequency band.
Idea is deploying Single RAN equipment which supports multiple technologies in a given frequency band. For every 4G site on 1800 MHz, this equipment also provides additional 2G voice capacity on GSM spectrum.
The Capex of Idea Cellular is Rs 7,500 crore in fiscal 2016-17. Idea Cellular plans to add 40,000 – 45,000 sites on 2G, 3G and 4G technology platforms during the current fiscal.
Paolo Colella, head of Region India at Ericsson, said: “The latest Ericsson Mobility Report shows that India added more mobile subscriptions than any other region in Q3 2015. These subscribers are increasingly demanding better network quality and superior services.”
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
