Indian telecom operator BSNL has selected Nokia for a network modernization project to support BSNL’s launch of 4G and Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services in western and southern regions of India.

Nokia received this important deal competing with Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE. The industry is hoping that BSNL will be revealing the name of the 4G equipment supplier for North and East regions as well.

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BSNL engineers will be deploying Nokia Single Radio Access Network (RAN) software to as part of the company strategy to simplify network installation. BSNL’s CXOs aim to save operational costs while supporting 2G, 3G and 4G subscribers in a single radio unit with the selection of Nokia 4G equipment.

BSNL’s telecom engineers will ensure that Nokia’s 4G technology is available in 10 telecom circles in India – Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana – serving large cities, businesses, technology and tourist hubs – and nearly 38 million BSNL subscribers.

4G contributed to 82 percent of India data traffic in 2017 and the monthly 4G data usage per user was nearly 11 GB per user per month, according to Nokia MBiT Index 2018 released last week.

Nokia Single RAN software, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), Session Border Controller (SBC), CloudBand, Monetization Solution, Performance Manager, IP/MPLS and Wavence microwave technologies are part of the 4G equipment deal.

“We are striving to offer the best in class network speed, coverage and capacity using the best technology available,” Anupam Shrivastava, chairman and managing director of BSNL, said.

Sanjay Malik, head of India Market at Nokia, said the deployment of 4G technologies will enable BSNL to launch new voice and data services, meeting growing demand in India.