Ericsson Lands India's First LTE TDD Deal

Ericsson AB has struck the first blow in the battle to win network infrastructure deals from India's BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) license-holders by landing a deal from Augere Holdings. Financial terms were not disclosed. (See Ericsson Signs First LTE TDD Deal.)

This is the first officially-announced LTE TDD deal, though there is plenty of industry speculation about other deals. (See IndiaWatch: Bharti Chooses ZTE for 4G rollout?, IndiaWatch: Reliance's 'Operation Vijay' for BWA and Rumor: RIL, Augere Pick LTE Suppliers.)

Though this is the first LTE TDD deal in the country, it is unlikely to be a huge deal as Augere was awarded spectrum in just one circle (service area) following the BWA auction conducted last year. (See .)

It is, though, a large circle -- Madhya Pradesh, which includes the state of the same name plus the state of Chhattisgarh that, together, have a total population of around 100 million people. And the deal is extensive, as it includes the vendor's RBS6000 radio access network (RAN) equipment, microwave backhaul kit, evolved packet core (EPS) and managed services for an initial three years.

Augere is aiming for a soft launch of its service, using the brand name ZOOSH, during the second quarter of calendar 2012, with a phased rollout covering an initial 14 cities in the circle. Its target market is the youth sector, with applications such as social networking and online gaming set to promoted prominently. Initial devices will be dongles that look set to be bundled along with network access deals.

"We are delighted to be one of the first wireless broadband service providers to announce our plans for the launch of 4G services in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh," said Lars Stork, the CEO of Augere Wireless Broadband India Pvt., in a prepared statement. "LTE is a new technology that will enable us to offer high speed and quality customer experience through a 4G wireless broadband service," he added.

Fredrik Jejdling, Head of Ericsson in India, said: "Mobility and broadband are among the main elements of Ericsson's vision of a Networked Society. With LTE and TD-LTE [LTE TDD], the mobile broadband experience will reach the next level." (See and .)

Many more LTE TDD equipment deals are likely to be announced in the Indian market during the coming months. Other winners of the BWA spectrum -- Bharti Airtel Ltd., Aircel Ltd., Qualcomm Inc., Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. and Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) -- are likely to announce equipment deals soon. (See , Bharti to Launch LTE by Q1 2012 and Report: 17 Million LTE Users in India by 2016.)

RIL, the only company with BWA licenses for all of India's 22 circles, is set to start the second phase of its BWA trial soon. RIL and other operators are believed to be working towards the launch of LTE services next year. (See RIL Prepares Phase II of LTE Trials.)

The major vendors are fighting tooth and nail for the LTE TDD deals in the country. Besides Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE Corp., Samsung Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. are aggressively fighting for these deals.

Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India