L.M. Ericsson and Lucent Technologies Inc. announced separate professional services wins in Asia.
In Pakistan, Ericsson’s managed services deal with Warid Telecommunications Pvt. Ltd. has been expanded so that Ericsson will build out and maintain the GSM/GPRS network in 20 more cities. The expansion is designed to increase capacity from 1.5 million subscribers to 3.5 million and should be completed in September.
In India, Ericsson inked a $250 million deal to expand and manage Bharti Tele-Ventures’ GSM/GPRS network in rural areas of the country. Bharti plans to expand into about 3,000 town in 15 regions starting next month. Ericsson already manages Bharti’s GSM/GPRS operations in 15 of 23 regions.
Meanwhile, Lucent won network optimization contracts from Tibet Mobile and Inner Mongolia Unicom. Lucent Worldwide Services will offer professional optimization services for Tibet Mobile’s entire GSM network. Tibet Mobile is a subsidiary of China Mobile.
With Inner Mongolian Unicom, Lucent will deliver network optimization services across the CDMA network throughout the province. The carrier is a subsidiary of China Unicom.
Also, Maxis Communications Berhad, a Malaysian telecom operator, plans to use Ericsson’s push e-mail solution, Ericsson Mobile Organizer, and Ericsson’s video telephone solution as platforms for two of its third-generation offerings. Maxis, which plans to launch 3G services in July, already uses Ericsson’s mobile music service.
Arima Communications Corp., an original design manufacturer based in Taiwan, will use Ericsson Mobile Platforms for its W-CDMA/GPRS handsets, based on Ericsson’s U250 platform.
