Uninor inks a deal with Huawei to expand its network in India

To expand its network in India, Norway-based Telenor's Indian unit Uninor has signed a contract worth about $300 million with Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei, giving a three-year 2G network expansion and transformation deal.

With the help of this contract, Uninor also intends to make its 4G network available in six circles - Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, reported the Economic Times.

As per the contract, Huawei would transform around 24,000 sites of Uninor in these six major circles in the country.

So far the telco has been working with Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia Networks for 2G service deployments in India. Nokia Networks currently deploying networks for Uninor's Assam circle, which is likely to start operations anytime this year.

Moreover, the same equipment from Huawei can further transform into 4G networks with some tweaks, once Uninor finalizes its plans to offers 4G services in India, according to the person familiar with the development.

Earlier, Uninor has said that it will introduce more sophisticated services using 4G LTE technology.

Once its permit is converted into a unified licence, Uninor can offer 4G services without buying more spectrum than what it already has in the 1800 MHz band. A unified licence allows airwaves to be used to offer any technology — 2G, 3G or 4G.

Analysts are of the view that the ecosystem for offering 4G over the 1800 MHz band (FDD-LTE), which Uninor has, is far more developed globally than the 2300 MHz band held by some Indian telcos.

Uninor provided services in more than 46 million subscribers using 2G technology in the country. It added 1.3 million subscribers during the second quarter ended June 30, and said the subscription base was 22% higher than the same quarter last year.

The telco said 26% of the customers were active data users, and is targeting 50% Internet customers by 2017.

Uninor recently posted total revenues at NOK 1,362 million (about Rs 1,064.63 crore) for the second quarter, up from NOK 1,021 million (about Rs 798.05 crore) last year. It also narrowed operating loss to NOK 90 million (about Rs 70.30 crore).

(Image: Reuters)