Telenor completes overhaul of 10,000 sites

Norwegian-owned cellco Telenor India has overhauled 10,000 of its network sites in six circles as part of plans to modernise its entire network by Q1 2017. The programme aims to replace each of the cellco’s 25,000 sites with state-of-the-art equipment to enable Telenor to provide high speed internet and enhanced voice services to its customers. Telenor claims that the rollout is the fastest upgrade on a live network in the industry, with the cellco swapping nearly 50 sites per day. As part of the project Telenor has deployed a ‘Lean GSM’ solution, which it claims improves network capacity by nearly 25%, whilst the new equipment is also more energy efficient, and uses up to 30% less power. Commenting on the programme’s progress, Telenor India’s CEO Sharad Mehrotra said: ‘The network modernisation programme shows our commitment to offer enhanced network quality experience and enrich the lives of our customers with affordable and relevant services. In a spectrum constrained and highly competitive business environment, the efficiencies we derive from the new network will help us maintain a cost-efficient operation and be future ready to manage the increasing demand from our customers for data services.’