ZTE Provides Gear, Finance to Atlas

NEW DELHI -- Chinese telecom conglomerate ZTE Corporation during the welcome ceremony of the Chinese Prime Minister His Excellency Mr. Wen Jiabao’s visit to India inked a Memorandum of Understanding with an Indian telecom and broadband giant Atlas Interactive for financial support of US$ 1 billion (Rupees 4,500 crores) & also a sales contract of US$ 208 million (Rs. 850 crores) for supply of 500,000 lines of ADSL equipment for Atlas’ TV over IP project.

These historic agreements were signed between Mr. Abhishek Verma, Chairman Atlas Interactive and Group Director Atlas Group of Companies, UK and Mr. Hou Weigui, Chairman ZTE Corporation China. At the ceremony organized by FICCI in Delhi Mr. Wan Jifei, Chairman CCPIT (Chinese Chamber of commerce) and Mr. K.K. Modi, Chairman Indo-China Joint Business promotion council of FICCI were also present along with Mr. Philippe Bednarek, Group Chairman Atlas Group and Mr. Amyn Chagan, CEO of Atlas Interactive India. Atlas intends to acquire unified access licenses for GSM and CDMA & fixed line deployment in Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Madhya Pradesh, UP (East), UP (West), West Bengal, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. These circles constitute more than half of India’s population.

According to Mr. Abhishek Verma, “GSM and basic services in these circles would be very profitable with ZTE participation. Besides, this funding shall also be utilized for deployment of a broadband network and for TV over IP services and for Atlas Interactive to launch its “netTV” services all across the country on several fixed line and IP networks”.

This agreement is going to engineer the broadband market in the coming months and set the standards for other players operating in the same domain to follow. It will symbolize growing synergies between two great Asian powers and how they are contributing at each others success.

This strategic alliance between the two companies will play a pivotal role in the broadband and telecom revolution in India and will help India to achieve high Teledensity.

This technology by Atlas Interactive called “netTV” is a futuristic venture with a solution that is able to deliver video on demand, broadcast TV, music, video conferencing, SMS, email web, high speed broadband, through a fixed lines via ADSL technologies, at nominal rates.

ZTE Corporation had already delivered in 2004 to Atlas Interactive a 50,000 ports ADSL system for Atlas’ ongoing netTV project for its first phase of deployment worth US$22 Million (Rs.110 crores). ZTE Corporation shall additionally deliver 500,000 lines ADSL systems for Atlas’ broadband network over fixed PSTN lines and WiMax for rollout of services at a national scale.

Both parties intend to further establish a strong partnership to rapidly boost broadband and value added services, GSM and CDMA network deployment in India, and to develop the ATLAS and ZTE brands and deployment of its products within a short time frame.

ZTE Corp.

Atlas Interactive