SAN FRANCISCO and NEW DELHI, India -- SOMA Networks Inc, a leading provider of Mobile WiMAX systems, announced today that it has been chosen by Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Ltd (BSNL), India’s state-owned and largest telecommunications company, to deploy the industry’s largest Mobile WiMAX network across three of India’s fastest-growing telecom circles: Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, and Andhra Pradesh. This new SOMA-based infrastructure will provide broadband data and voice services to a service area reaching more than 200 million people, and represents a major step forward in realizing the Indian government’s “Vision 2010” mandate to make broadband services ubiquitous and turn India into a global information technology force.
BSNL selected SOMA Networks after extensive field trials in urban, suburban and rural areas. SOMA’s solution was the Mobile WiMAX technology found suitable for all subscriber environments. Based on the 802.16e-2005 standard, SOMA’s Mobile WiMAX solution provides extended range and supports high subscriber density per sector.
“India has an immense need for connectivity across a varied and wide-ranging demographic population,” said Mr. Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of BSNL. “After testing, we found SOMA Networks’ solution qualified to meet the requirements of our Vision 2010 mandate.”
With a rapidly growing middle class and highly educated population, India currently has an enormous unmet demand for broadband services. By deploying SOMA Networks’ end-to-end Mobile WiMAX solution, BSNL will bring a full range of multimedia services to an area serving more than 200 million people over the next three years.
“Our partnership with BSNL validates SOMA’s strategy of providing broadband voice and data services to bridge the digital divide, a strategy we have been successfully executing for the past nine years,” said Yatish Pathak, founder and CEO of SOMA Networks. “It is a great honor for SOMA to be selected by BSNL, which we believe is the direct result of our focused commitment to make world-class service providers successful.”
