Nortel has won an agreement with BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.), valued at over US$100 million, to put mobile connectivity in the hands of millions of new subscribers in the southern area of the country.

"Since 2004, Nortel has worked closely with BSNL in rolling out mobile service to some seven million customers in the southern and eastern parts of India while ensuring the network is cost-effective and implemented according to BSNL’s aggressive timelines," said Hitesh Lokhandwala, managing director, Nortel India. "This new contract award reflects BSNL’s confidence in Nortel to achieve these targets, and is further proof that in one of the most competitive, dynamic and fastest-growing markets in the world, Nortel’s solutions meet our customers’ requirements."

"India represents an enormous opportunity for Nortel in the carrier space, with its consistently high growth rates and increasingly mobile population," said Richard Lowe, president, Carrier Networks, Nortel. "We have redesigned our GSM portfolio with this kind of opportunity in mind, making our solution much more cost competitive, without compromising the performance, capacity and coverage for which Nortel is renowned. Nortel offers an immediate solution for today’s high-growth markets, and a clear migration path to 4G as operators across India eye the evolution of their networks to offer higher-bandwidth services in the near future."

Nortel's deployment of the BSNL network expansion is already underway and is expected to be completed towards the end of 2008.