INFRASTRUCTURE /

Huawei wins $120 million contracts to upgrade Airtel, Idea wireline networks

NEW DELHI: Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies has bagged two contracts worth a combined $120 million from Bharti Airtel, India’s leading telecom service provider, and Idea Cellular, the third-largest player, to upgrade their wireline networks, a person familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have awarded contracts worth $60 million each to Huawei, the person said. Their networks will be enhanced to carry increasing data traffic.

“Telcos require bigger pipes, which can handle exponential data growth and video traffic. The solutions Huawei deploys can handle such data growth,” he added.

The transformed backbone wireline network will help both companies offer new, data-rich services to customers, the person said. “The deployment will also help the telcos support their enterprise services and reduce operating expenditure,” the person said.

Shenzen-based Huawei had earlier signed a $150-million, pan-India deal with Vodafone India to upgrade its wireline network, ET reported recently. (Read more:Huawei Technologies signs $150-million deal with Vodafone to upgrade wireline network)

Huawei and Idea Cellular did not immediately respond to ET’s queries, while Bharti Airtel declined to comment.

As part of contracts, Huawei is providing are 100G DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) products, Hybrid IP radio solutions and 400Gbps carrier routers, which will enhance capacity and robustness of the networks of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular.

Wireline networks support wireless communications between mobile handsets and cell towers.

As smartphone sales surge, the telecom industry is seeing increasing use of data services, a trend that may strengthen with the addition of 4G technology, which offers faster download speeds. Analysts say backbone networks need to be beefed up to handle increasing data traffic.

Huawei recently secured a three-year contract from Bharti Airtel to supply base stations and other equipment for its 4G network.

Source: ETTelecom

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