12th August, 2004: India's largest GSM operator Bharti Tele-Ventures is to deploy EDGE technology in its Kolkata network using equipment supplied by Siemens. The Bharti order is Siemens' third EDGE win in Asia and the company's twelfth win worldwide. Siemens will deliver and install by September of this year all the components required to commercially deploy EDGE in the network of Bharti's subsidiary Airtel in Kolkata.

"EDGE is the new mantra in the global Internet connectivity scene and will allow us to offer high speed data services which are approximately three times those of GPRS. We have already launched our EDGE networks in India starting with Punjab and will subsequently be rolling out in 13 other cities in a phased manner. Siemens expertise and global know-how will therefore be a great asset for us", according to Mr. Manoj Kohli, President Mobility, Bharti Tele-Ventures.

With 7.67mn mobile customers (end of June 2004), Bharti is India's largest GSM mobile service provider. Siemens and Bharti have shared a close association starting with their partnership in fixed network business in 1998.