Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad: Samsung to up investment, focus on 4G market

Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said Samsung is keen to make additional investment in India and focus on 4G LTE market.

Tweeting from Seoul, Korea, the minister said: “I met the CEO of Samsung and discussed India’s NOFN and Smart City projects. Samsung is keen on India’s 4G LTE mobile market. They want to increase investment in the country.”

Later in the day, a government communication said that Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is on a visit to South Korea to attend the Plenipotentiary Conference 2014 of the International Telecom Union, met Bon Joon Koo, vice chairman and CEO of LG Electronics and Jong Kyun Shin, president & CEO, Samsung IT and Mobile Communications.

Samsung is already supplying 4G telecom equipments to RIL promoted Reliance Jio Infocomm, which will be launching its LTE services next year. Recently, RIL signed a $750 million loan facility to source 4G networks from Samsung.

Though Samsung has a global presence in the LTE market, it could not sign 4G telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel and Aircel for their recent LTE roll outs on TD-LTE technology.

Recently, Ericsson said it would work with Bharti Airtel for supporting its 4G services on FD-LTE technology. Both Huawei and ZTE are already working with Bharti Airtel, which has limited presence in the Indian 4G market.

Alcatel-Lucent is yet to open its 4G account in India.

Baburajan K
[email protected]