Contract from Mukesh Ambani firm is first for Korean co in India.
Leading Korean handset manufacturer Samsung is venturing into the base transceiver station (BTS) space.
Samsung will make its Indian debut in the BTS space with Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) with whom it has signed its first contract to supply active BTS infrastructure for 4G.
BTS is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment and a network.
Nokia Siemens Networks and Ericsson are the leaders in the BTS space in India, supplying to most operators.
According to sources familiar with the development, RJIL has signed a contract worth around $1.2 billion (Rs7,500 crore) with Samsung for 70,000 BTS pan India. So far, 20% or 14,000 BTS have already been supplied to RJIL by Samsung.
The BTS contract is the second deal signed between RJIL and Samsung, as the latter will also be providing 4G handsets to RJIL, which will boast of the first voice calling 4G facility on voice over LTE (VoLTE).
So far, Airtel – the only operator which has launched 4G in India — provides the service only through data cards.
However, it is unclear whether Samsung will ink more such BTS deals with other operators as it is expected that other potential 4G players will either use their own towers or source them from Indus – the largest tower company in India.
An email query sent to Samsung went unanswered.
While RJIL’s fibre optic laying across the country is already in progress, it has been postponing its 4G launch, which is now expected to start rolling out in Guwahati and further in the North East via Kolkata within the next two months.
Samsung is expected to supply 1,200 BTS to RJIL for the Guwahati 4G launch.
Earlier, RJIL was expected to do a 4G soft launch in Mumbai and Delhi in December.
However, the delay in the 2G auction – which is now expected to take place in March – and where RJIL will be a key player may also be behind the lag in RJIL’s big bang 4G launch.
An RIL spokesperson declined to comment.
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