Nokia lands $1 billion RAN deal with Bharti Airtel

Finnish kit vendor has signed a multi-year deal with Indian operator Bharti Airtel to deploy a bunch of its SRAN gear all over the country.

Nokia Single RAN consists of multipurpose hardware and common software for 2G, 3G, for TD- and FD 4G and 5G technologies, according to the Nokia site. It’s all about reducing complexity, increasing cost efficiency and future-proofing your RAN, apparently. While this isn’t specifically a 5G deal, Nokia apparently reckons it could turn into one fairly easily.

It wasn’t specified in the press release, but we are advised that the value of the deal is close to a billion bucks, which is a nice win for the cash-strapped vendor. Around 300,000 radio units will be deployed across nine of the 22 telecoms circles in India over the next three years, assuming anyone is allowed to leave the house in that time. So it looks like an SRAN unit sets you back around three grand.

“This is an important agreement for the future of connectivity in one of the world’s largest telecoms markets and solidifies our position in India,” said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri. “We have worked closely with Bharti Airtel for many years and are delighted to extend this long-standing partnership further. This project will enhance their current networks and deliver best-in-class connectivity to Airtel customers but also lay the foundations for 5G services in the future.”

“We are committed to continuously invest in emerging network technologies to provide a best-in-class experience to our customers,” said Gopal Vittal, CEO (India and South Asia) at Bharti Airtel. “This initiative with Nokia is a major step in this direction. We have been working with Nokia for more than a decade now and are delighted to use Nokia’s SRAN products in further improving the capacity and coverage of our network as we prepare for the 5G era.”

This is especially welcome news for Nokia in the light of it completely missing out on any of the 5G RAN action in China. While it’s still a distant third behind Huawei and Ericsson in the 5G deal race, massive wins like this may not only give it some 5G action by stealth, they could also increase the confidence of other operators to give Nokia a go.