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    Nokia India bags 50 contracts in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year

    Synopsis

    Nokia is aggressively targeting deals from enterprises outside of the traditional telecom service provider segment in search for new revenue opportunities.

    Sanjay Malik
    Our deals came from IP & Optics, fixed network from various operators, and from customers beyond core telcos like cable operators, says Sanjay Malik ,Nokia India Head.
    NEW DELHI: Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia has bagged about 50 new contracts in the first half of the ongoing fiscal year and is in talks with Indian telcos for network capacity expansion as new business opportunities arise in the final leg of industry consolidation.

    “We won around 50 deals in the first half and out of those 50 deals, about 55% is in the beyond mobility space. Our deals came from IP & Optics, fixed network from various operators, and from customers beyond core telcos like cable operators,” Nokia India head, Sanjay Malik, told ET, in an exclusive interaction.

    Nokia is aggressively targeting deals from enterprises outside of the traditional telecom service provider segment in search for new revenue opportunities.

    This is reflected in Nokia winning some 26 of the 50 contracts from segments beyond the core wireless segment. The new deals include contracts from Nepal and Bhutan markets that are managed by the Indian team.

    Speaking on the non-core business, Malik said that Nokia did well in the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) space in the first half, and managed to bag some lucrative GPON technology deals from telcos and internet service providers are building optical transport networks to enhance capacity and support data growth.

    “We were also the first one to provide 200 G network layer to telcos in India,” Malik said. “We are also doing well in the virtualization space on the core and the packet core side, along with virtualisation of the IMS VoLTE platform,” he added.

    The executive said that Indian telecom operators are expanding networks for capacity and coverage needs keeping rapid wireless data growth. “FD-LTE expansion has been happening, but the focus now has moved to TD-LTE expansion for the capacity requirement”.

    Malik added that Indian operators have continuously been expanding the network depending upon their strategies, including telcos that are involved in merger and acquisitions (M&A) activities.

    “The expansion drive has been continuing right from the beginning on this year. Some operators will have leading circles in one area vis-à-vis other operators who could be having in some other area. So, depending upon their strategies, expansions are happening,” he explained.

    Nokia has also started Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity related discussions with Indian telecom operators looking to roll out their respective narrow-band IoT networks in India following a commercial launch by Reliance Jio.

    “As of now, discussions are in the engagement phase, which is going on from the presales perspective, architecture perspective, and which way the customer wants to go,” Malik said.

    Nokia is currently involved in commercial trails of massive Mimo technology and is driving talks with telcos for 5G field trials.

    Malik said that it is pertinent for Indian telcos to put all the building blocks for 5G technology, including transport network build-outs, and fiberisation of cell sites.

    “The new base stations that we are supplying to Indian telcos are 5G ready. This, along with other elements, would again help in getting the network to 5G much faster,” he added.



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