Chennai: Private telephone company Bharti Airtel Limited, and Nokia Siemens Networks singed a MoU for a $900 million expansion contract across Bharti Airtel's mobile, fixed and intelligent network platforms.

Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens will help expand Airtel's networks over two years and its international calling card prepaid service over three years. The agreement covers Airtel's mobile, fixed and intelligent network platforms, Nokia Siemens said in a statement.

In the first multi platform network contract of its kind to be awarded in India, Nokia Siemens Networks will expand Bharti Airtel's GSM network in eight circles; its national long distance and international long distance network with 1.8 million next generation network (NGN) ports and its international calling card prepaid service capacity by 4.5 million news users.

The GSM and NGN expansions are planned over two years and the international calling cards expansion over three years.

The Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Manoj Kohli, president and CEO of Bharti Airtel and Simon Beresford Wylie, CEO, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Commenting on the deal Kohli said, "Bharti Airtel is undertaking a massive expansion and integration exercise across its mobile and fixed networks to significantly augment its service delivery capacity."

The contract includes network planning, implementation and project management, handling of local logistics and materials as well as system integration for the base station sites.

For the two year fixed network expansion, Nokia Siemens Networks will deploy 1.8 million next generation networks ports across Bharti Airtel's national long distance and international long distance.

The three-year international calling cards services expansion will enable Bharti Airtel to more than quadruple its capacity and adequately address its calling card business expansion to tap more international markets.

On Monday Nokia Siemens Networks said it planned to spend $100 million in India in the next three years expanding its local operations in the country.

Nokia Siemens Ltd, a 50:50 joint venture between Nokia and Germany's Siemens, started operations in April and had pro-forma sales of 17.1 billion euros last year. It is the world's fourth largest telecommunications infrastructure provider, behind Cisco Systems, Alcatel Lucent and Sweden's Ericsson. It ranks second to Ericsson in mobile infrastructure sales.

Bharti is also in talks with Ericsson AB for an additional contract, chief executive Manoj Kohli said. Nokia Siemens will provide equipment for Bharti's operations in eight of India's 23 designated telecommunications zones.