Vodafone has established a strategic partnership with Ericsson and awarded Rs. 2040 crores worth of 4G contract. According to reports, the deal is for establishing 4G deployment in UP West, Rajasthan, Odisha, North East and Assam telecom zones.
Commenting on the development, an official spokesperson of Vodafone revealed that the deployment of 4G LTE network is expected to be completed by Q3 2017. Moreover, Ericsson is also gearing up to deploy its full radio system portfolio that offers 50% enhanced energy efficiency.
Vodafone is rapidly expanding its network operations in India by increasing capacities. The main reason for the huge expansion is attributed to combat Airtel and Reliance Jio. Meanwhile, Vodafone is currently in discussion with Idea Cellular for an imminent merger. There were rumors about the merger, but we don’t have any confirmation.
According to industry analysts, the backend talks between Vodafone and Idea Cellular are going on in full swing. The merger if turns out to be true could pave the way for realignments of existing contracts with their respective partners.
Vodafone has already given 4G LTE deployment network rollout contracts amounting to Rs. 450 to Rs. 500 million to Finland-based Nokia. The contract will cover ten telecom circles including a similar contact to Huawei in Karnataka, Kerala and Delhi circles. Vodafone also entered into an additional Rs. 200 million contracts to Nokia, which will cover several telecom circles.
