BSNL, Motorola ink $178m GSM contract

NEW DELHI: Motorola Inc. and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) have signed a

$178 million contract to deploy India's single-largest Global System for Mobile

(GSM) communications infrastructure. It will support 1.4 million subscribers in

Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

BSNL, a government-owned entity, is the largest basic wireline service

provider in the country with over 34 million subscribers. Recently awarded a

license to operate as the third cellular service provider, BSNL has ambitious

plans to provide GSM cellular services in south India.

"We are delighted that BSNL has chosen Motorola to install this

expansive network, which will be India's single largest GSM implementation

ever," said Pramod Saxena, country manager, Motorola India.

He added, "The southern zone is amongst the most important zones for

service providers as it has 30 per cent of the country's cellular subscriber

base and the highest average revenue per unit. The Motorola network is designed

to be scalable and robust to address the growing number of subscribers in the

south zone."

Motorola would provide seamless cellular access across 280 cities and

highways in the four states. The agreement for a total turnkey 900 MHz GSM

network includes base stations, switches, intelligent network, billing platform,

and turnkey services and project management. It also includes terminal devices

and subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.