Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung set to win fresh 4G, 5G deals worth over $2 billion from Airtel

Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung will meet around 50 percent, 45 percent and 5 percent of Bharti Airtel’s fresh 4G and 5G equipment network needs, respectively.

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26 Aug, 2025 12:21

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Nokia, Ericsson, and Samsung are set to win new multi-year contracts worth over $2 billion to supply 4G and 5G radio network equipment to Bharti Airtel, which is now looking to deepen its 4G and 5G coverage in key telecom circles seeing increased data growth besides launching standalone 5G services in the country, people familiar with the matter said.

“The negotiations are done, and new renewal deals with Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung will be signed in the coming days. These new renewed deals are for the long term. The size of these deals will cross $2 billion over the next few years,” a source close to the development told Moneycontrol.

Sources added that Ericsson and Nokia are ready to supply new equipment to the Sunil Mittal-led telco in the coming weeks.

An Airtel source told Moneycontrol that the telco’s expansion is a part of the ongoing arrangements with network vendor partners. Queries sent to Airtel remained unanswered.

Airtel’s latest renewal came weeks after Vodafone Idea signed $3.6-billion equipment deals with all three equipment vendors to expand its 4G network and gradually roll out 5G services.

Similar to their previous agreement signed in August 2022, Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung will meet around 50 percent, 45 percent and 5 percent of Bharti Airtel’s fresh 4G and 5G equipment network needs, respectively.

“Both Jio and Airtel are continuing to expand the 5G infrastructure, and Vodafone Idea is also catching up and has announced plans for both 4G and 5G. With all these put together, India will see steady 5G growth,” Andres Vicente, SVP & Head of Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India, told Moneycontrol. He, however, declined to share specific information related to Airtel’s renewal contract.

Nokia India head Tarun Chhabra separately told Moneycontrol that all three private operators are undertaking the network expansion.

“We are having this expansion as a continuous process…there is always a network requirement as data traffic increases,” he said, adding that there is expansion taking place in the rural parts of the country by telcos. Chhabra also declined to comment on Airtel’s renewal contract.

Samsung did not respond to queries from Moneycontrol.

As of June end, Airtel had 90 million 5G users and around 170 million 4G users. It will soon launch a standalone 5G network to initially support its Fixed Wireless Access broadband service.

Sources said that the renewal deals also focus on providing 5G equipment to help Airtel launch its soon-to-be-launched SA network.

Notably, Jio is the only telecom operator in the country with a pan-India SA network. Standalone 5G architecture is a superior mobile broadband technology compared to non-standalone architecture.