Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei score Indian mobile deals

Alcatel-Lucent today announced having won a $400 million contract to supply India’s Reliance Communications with CDMA and GSM wireless equipment, while Huawei Technologies won a $200 million contract to do the same.

The two vendors will help Reliance bring mobile services to more than 20,000 towns and 600,000 villages, the carrier said.

Though Reliance had previously purchased CDMA gear from Lucent Technologies, it was a new customer for Alcatel. In a note issued Thursday, UBS Investment Research estimated the new Alcatel-Lucent deal to be about 70% CDMA gear and 30% GSM.

Prices were likely very competitive, as they typically are in such Indian deals, UBS said. “This is likely an example of [Alcatel-Lucent] using some the planned 600 million euros in merger synergies in 2007 to win strategic footprint.”

Claiming more than 35 million subscribers, Reliance is India’s second biggest mobile service provider. Analysts have projected India’s mobile subscriber base to surpass the U.S.’s by the end of next year, giving India the second biggest population of mobile subscribers, behind China. India’s largest mobile carrier, Bharti Airtel, recently awarded a $900 million contract to Nokia Siemens Networks.