Bharti Airtel has signed a $400-million deal with Chinese vendor Huawei to modernise and expand Airtel's mobile network infrastructure in Africa.
According to the agreement, Huawei will be responsible for designing, planning as well as managing operations and maintenance.
Ericsson and Nokia Siemens are also likely to get similar deals.
Announcing the agreement, Mr Manoj Kohli, CEO (International) and Joint Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, said “The partnership with Huawei takes us one step closer to realising our vision of making affordable and world-class telecom services available to Africa. This partnership will allow us to focus on delivering better customer experience as we leverage the global network management expertise of Huawei.”
Ms Sun Yafang, Chairwoman of Huawei Board, said: “We believe our innovative technologies as well as strong delivery capability will bring Bharti Airtel's customers a better user experience and value proposition.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Huawei will deploy its complete GSM and 3G product portfolio including BTS 3900 multi-standard radio base stations working with GSM and HSPA technologies, which will further be equipped and prepared for Long Term Evolution.