Earlier this year, I had reporetd on the unique business model adopted by Airtel for network expansion, upgradation and management – outsource the entire networking operation to GSM equipment manufacturer, Ericsson. Airtel has done it again. It has outsourced a Billion dollar(Rs4,600 crores) contract to Ericsson for the next 3 years to help Bharti expand and upgrade its GSM network in the country.
Akil Gupta, Joint MD of Bharti-Airtel told that the deal would be financed through internal accurals. Had anybody thought in the 90s that Indian telecom would be a market worth billions of dollars and European telecos would get a considerable slice of this market ? Well early investment by those companies in India has paid off as revenues on their home-turf have slowed down. With 3G services in the offing, Telecom MNCs in India can expect a bigger slice of this market.
