Bharti adds ECI equipment to scale up India base
SEPTEMBER 4, 2007 — India telecom service provider Bharti Airtel Limited selected ECI Telecom Ltd. (Israel) to supply optical equipment supporting a subscriber-base expansion. Bharti chose ECI's converged multi-service provisioning platform (MSPP) XDM, citing scalability and support.
Bharti will add services, including broadband data, voice, and leased lines, and plans to increase its network footprint beyond 40 million subscribers. It will deploy ECI optical solutions to increase network capacity from 2.5 G to 10 G and will add Metro DWDM. The XDM platform is reportedly future proof in addition to its scaleability. LightSoft network management systems deliver additional support for Bharti's expansion.
Bharti and ECI have collaborated since 1999. ECI offers quality equipment, reliability, and proven support, said Rajan Swaroop, executive director, Airtel Enterprise Services Carrier. The solutions will be scalable with minimal hardware changes, leveraging present infrastructure. This will reduce CAPEX costs while broadening service options, said Ido Gur, executive VP, global sales and marketing, ECI. The companies also cited complementary understanding of the India market as reason for continued partnership.