The Indian Bharti Airtel leads the dance, with Nokia and Vodafone
According to the Indian site Newkerala.com, the Swedish giant Nokia has just been awarded a major contract for network equipment to the Indian telecom company Bharti Airtel. Not exactly a stranger: BA is headed by Sunnil Bharti Mittal, a model of self made man in the Indian (he started in the business in 1976 to 18 years), today to lead a group of 30,000 employees with over 50 million mobile subscribers and 2 million subscribers including fixed.

On this project, it will install a vast infrastructure so-called "IVR (Interactive Voice Response) that will (by next April) at the Indian operator to issue various communications services value-added to its customers (SMS vocal, voting at a distance, for example). The total project will take three years to achieve.

Bharti Airtel leads the dance in India also, for an operation with the British Vodafone and confirmed early December: the two allies are joined by another actor Indian telecom, Idea Cellular. Taken together, they intend to build an independent joint venture (Indus Towers) proposing a network of base stations for other operators communication third. Bharti will inject, according to the English site Cellular-News 1 billion USD. Vodafone is in fact little more than a partner for Bharti: Cellular-News also recalls that the British took 10% of the Indian group from the end of 2005. And the appetite Indian Vodafone is the biggest yet: the group has its own activities based on the Indian takeover in 2005 of the activities of Hutchinson Essar, yet to be validated by the Indian authorities, said the English site The Register.