Nokia Siemens Networks selected as Unitech Wireless’ exclusive pan-Indian network supplier for high speed data services

Nokia Siemens Networks has been selected by Unitech Wireless as its exclusive pan-India supplier to roll out and manage its GPRS core network under a three year contract. Backed by Nokia Siemens Networks, Unitech Wireless’ subscribers will benefit from both superior quality voice and high speed mobile data services from day one.

“Get technology, costs and speed that is better than competition and get the most competent partner to manage these for us. Invest what we save in building our brand by creating better products and better customer service and become the preferred SIM. This is our model, and we found Nokia Siemens Networks a perfect fit,” said Stein-Erik Vellan, Managing Director, Unitech Wireless.

Nokia Siemens Networks will provide an entire gamut of services ranging from network implementation and network operations to care. Managing the day-to-day operations of the pan-Indian GPRS network, it will deliver increased network efficiency, organizational flexibility, transparency and reduced cost of ownership to Unitech Wireless.

“The mobile data surge is happening now,” added Urs Pennanen, Head of India region at Nokia Siemens Networks. “Gearing up for launch by end of this year, our solution will enable Unitech Wireless to meet the demands of increased user traffic – both from a service and cost point of view. For us this partnership is especially significant since it proves we are the clear number 1 for packet core implementations in the Indian market.”

Nokia Siemens Networks will implement IP/Multi Protocol Layer Switching (MPLS) technology and design an end-to-end packet core network with high resiliency and performance. In addition, an online and offline mediation system and the NetAct network management system will monitor, manage and optimize the network to support high speed data services.

About Unitech Wireless and Uninor

Uninor is the brand name for Unitech Wireless – the joint venture company of India’s second largest diversified real estate major Unitech Ltd. and the Norway based world’s 6th largest mobile services provider Telenor Group. At present, the Telenor Group has already invested INR 2620 crores through new shares in the joint venture company with an agreement to raise this to INR 6120 crores to hold 67.25% stake.

Unitech Wireless holds a pan-India UAS license to offer mobile telephony services in each of India’s 22 circles. It has also received spectrum to roll out these services in 21 of the 22 circles and intends to roll out its services in select circles by the end of 2009.

About Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of telecommunications services. With its focus on innovation and sustainability, the company provides a complete portfolio of mobile, fixed and converged network technology, as well as professional services including consultancy and systems integration, deployment, maintenance and managed services. It is one of the largest telecommunications hardware, software and professional services companies in the world. Operating in 150 countries, its headquarters are in Espoo, Finland. www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Engage in conversation about Nokia Siemens Networks’ aim to reinvent the connected world at http://unite.nokiasiemensnetworks.com and talk about its news at http://blogs.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

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Media Enquiries

Nokia Siemens Networks

Sangita Sanju

Communications, India

Phone: +91 98114 51254

E-mail: sangita.sanju {at} nsn(.)com

Unitech Wireless

Sharad Goswami

AGM – Communications

Phone: +91 96549 56323

E-mail: sharad.goswami {at} unitechwireless(.)com

Notes to Editor

According to February 2009 end data, around 25-26% or close to 100 million of India’s 376 million mobile phone users have Internet capable phones with India accounting for 11.1% of the worldwide mobile web browsing traffic. (Source: Mobile Web Analytics firm, Bango)

Nokia Siemens Networks predicts that by 2011 mobile data will overtake voice traffic, growing exponentially until 2013. Specifically, we will witness a yearly doubling of data traffic worldwide from almost 400 petabytes (400 million gigabytes) in 2009 to almost 2,000 petabytes (2 billion gigabytes) by 2011, bypassing the estimated volume of voice traffic (1,200 petabytes in 2011). (Source: Nokia Siemens Networks’ traffic forecasts, press release “Mobile data to outstrip voice traffic by 2011”, July 23, 2009)

Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading packet core supplier and has more than 255 GPRS references globally. It serves more than 500 million packet core subscribers on all continents.

The high user capacity of the packet core solution from Nokia Siemens Networks allows Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to handle a huge number of mobile consumers, even if they are using data services heavily, with a very small amount of equipment. One part of the solution, the Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), combines support for 2G and 3G networks dynamically in one system. CSPs are therefore free to devote available capacity to the network where the capacity is needed without adding new hardware.

The SGSN also supports the so called “direct tunnel architecture” thereby preparing a network for “flat architecture” that is part of Long Term Evolution (LTE) mobile networks. With this technology the data traffic connection is made directly between the radio access network and the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN). Only the signaling part has to be routed through the SGSN. This simplifies the network, reduces transmission costs and saves a lot of capacity in the SGSN, so an increase in traffic doesn’t mean an additional investment in this part of the network.

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