IdeaCellular

Mumbai,May 17 (UNI) Idea Cellular Ltd, an Aditya Birla Group company, and Nokia Siemens Networks today announced signing of a USD 500 million GSM network expansion contract.

Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Network will expand Idea Cellular's GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks to cover population centres across six circles of Delhi, Haryana, UP East, UP West and Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The two year contract includes supply and services of GSM equipment, Intelligent Network, Value Added Services and Circuit and Packet core equipment. Nokia Siemens Network will deploy the latest state of art equipment like flexi BTS, mini-ultra base stations, Release 4 architecture, media gateways and MSS servers.

Idea Celluar MD Mr Sanjeev Aga told mediapersons here this evening that Idea has been at the forefront of providing innovative voice and data services to its customers by leveraging the best technologies. ''This expansion is a part of our larger growth strategy to take our services to more consumers by penetrating deeper in the circles we operate. This will allow us to more than double our existing capacity and reach out to thousands of new population centres in these circles''.

''Nokia Siemens Networks with its cutting edge technology, and its long standing relationship with Idea, is key partner in our programme of taking our business to a higher trajectory,'' he added.

Meanwhile, Head of India Sub-region, Nokia Siemens Network, Mr Ashish Chowdhary also stated that '' Our innovative product portfolio and services capabilities will redefine in the entire approach of providing network that are affordable and quality-rich. This contract would support Idea to offer its subscribers an outstanding network experience even as services are expanding to newer population centres.'' UNI