Vodafone Idea To Award New Network Contracts To Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei In A Week; ZTE May Lose Biz

Vodafone Idea has been running requests for proposals (RFPs) for its pan-India network and negotiating new contracts for some time.

Vodafone Idea, India’s largest telecom operator, may close new commercial contracts for its pan-India radio network with Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei in a week’s time, with ZTE missing out, three people close to the development said.

A person familiar with the matter said Finland’s Nokia is set to get 11 circles, while Sweden’s Ericsson 7 and China’s Huawei will get 4-5 circles. One of the people said EY is providing consulting to Vodafone Idea for these contracts.

“It is their priority to close these contracts immediately and then move to the deployment cycle to keep up with competition,” the person said.

The person added that once the radio networks contracts are awarded, Vodafone Idea will take another month to award new contracts for core network under phase two.

Vodafone Idea has been running requests for proposals (RFPs) for its pan-India network and negotiating new contracts for some time. The earlier plan was to close these contracts in September, but it got pushed due to the delay for the merger approval, the person said.

A second person said Vodafone Idea is most likely to keep one vendor per telecom circle. He said Vodafone Idea has given requirement to vendors for additional sites required in each circle under their expansion plan.

Vodafone Idea has already been commercially deploying pre-5G technology massive mimo and carrier aggregation in India, besides initiating virtualization of its core networks at a larger scale.

Nokia is currently present in 10 circles with Vodafone and five circles with Idea Cellular, while Ericsson has five circles with Vodafone and eight circles with Idea. Huawei has three circles with Vodafone and four circles with Idea. ZTE has three circles with Idea.

The new network strategy will comprise reallocation of existing sites, and modernization of networks, including the new requirement of radio base stations, a third person said. Under the reallocation, the company will deploy redundant 3G/4G networks in rural areas.

“The RFP and negotiations are still on. There is a slight chance that they come up with a disruptive model wherein they keep more than one vendor for different bands and technologies in a circle,” he added.

Vodafone Idea, Nokia, Ericsson, ZTE and EY did not reply to ET queries.

Huawei India chief executive Jay Chen told ET, “Vodafone and Idea are old customers. They know us very well and have a very good partnership and cooperation. Huawei is currently in the participation of the RFP, which has not closed yet. We are very much in the race”.

Vodafone India and Idea have merged recently to create India’s largest telco, and are moving swiftly to start generating benefits from operational synergies targeted at around $10 billion over the next few years, with network rationalization playing a major part in the projected savings. – Economics Times