Motorola, BSNL sign $178 mn contract for GSM network in S India

Motorola Inc. and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) have signed a contract to deploy India's single largest order for a Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications infrastructure in each of the four States in South India. The contract, valued at $178 million, will support a total of 1.4 million subscribers in the States of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra
Pradesh.

BSNL, a basic service provider, was recently awarded a license to operate as the third cellular service provider and has ambitious plans to provide GSM cellular services in south India.

Motorola will 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 and also includes terminal devices and subscriber identity module (SIM) cards. Motorola will work with local contractors in each State for installation and
optimization of the networks.

"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 for Motorola India. "The southern zone is amongst the most important zones for any cellular service provider as it has 30 percent of the country's cellular subscriber base and the highest average revenue per unit in the country. The Motorola network is designed to be scalable and robust to address the growing number of subscribers in the south zone," said Saxena.