Vodafone India, in what might be considered as a huge move has given a whopping Rs. 3,650 crores deal to Finnish company, Nokia to deploy 4G network is some circles of India. According to an Economic Times report, a person familiar with the matter said that Nokia would deploy the 4G network in 10 out of 22 circles and the list includes Kolkata, Mumbai, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu/Chennai, Haryana, UP East, West Bengal, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu &Kashmir.
Vodafone is planning to expand its 4G presence in the country with this deal as the rival operators such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel already has a vast 4G presence with the latter being the country’s first LTE-only network.
It was recently reported that Huawei, the Chinese vendor used to deploy 4G services for Vodafone in some circles such as Karnataka, Delhi, and Kerala, but with this move, Vodafone has agreed to give Nokia a massive ride in their Indian presence.
Having said that, this is not the first deal Nokia has bagged in recent times. The company has earlier pocketed a big deal worth nearly $500 million from Bharti Airtel to deploy 4G services in six circles of the country.
That deal with Nokia has massively helped Airtel to expand their 4G services in the country quickly. Vodafone India is also hoping for the same. To recall, Vodafone India at the start of 2016 acquired multi-band 4G spectrum across different frequencies: 1800, 2100, and 2500MHz for a whopping Rs. 203 billion.
With this deal, Vodafone is expecting to deliver uninterrupted 4G services in 2400 towns of India by the end of March 2017. Also, the report claims that 91 percent of the Vodafone’s revenue is being come from those cities itself.
Will this deal help in Vodafone’s favor? Or does it go in vain? Let us know your thoughts in comments below.
