Bharti Airtel has said it has selected Swedish telecom equipment-maker Ericsson and Huawei from China as vendors to deploy, expand and manage its mobile network in Bangladesh.
It was announced at a press conference held in the city yesterday. High officials of Bharti Airtel and Warid Telecom were present at the ceremony.
Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel, owned by Sunil Mittal, had acquired 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom of Bangladesh for $300 million earlier this year.Warid has a user base of over three million in Bangladesh. The company declined to share the financial details of the partnership.
Under this contract, Ericsson will deliver and manage majority of the company’s network capacity while Huawei will swap the existing radio network in the eastern areas of Bangladesh, Bharti has said in a statement.
It has also said these partnerships will also ensure that the networks are 3G-ready, in order to enable the fast roll out of third generation services at a later date.
This will enable Bharti to take its network deep into Bangladesh and contribute to the growth of telecom in the country with affordable services, it adds.
Bharti Airtel, which has added over 2.03 million subscribers in August, has a total user base of 141.25 million in India.
The agreement is modelled on Bharti’s successfully managed networks business model in India and Sri Lanka.
With the acquisition of Warid and Zain in Africa, Bharti, now operates mobile services in 19 countries across Asia and Africa and is the world’s fifth-largest mobile carrier by subscribers.
