Ericsson wins Bhutan 3G contract

Swedish vendor Ericsson has signed a deal with Bhutan Telecom (BT) to supply a W-CDMA/HSDPA network for the Himalayan mountain kingdom. Construction of the network will begin in November in the capital Thimpu and nearby Paro before expanding nationwide. BT’s managing director Thinley Dorji said, ‘The need to roll out a state-of-the-art network cost-effectively to provide our customers with the best possible communication experience was of paramount importance. This contract extends our long-running relationship with Ericsson, with their industry expertise making them the natural partner of choice for this project.’ BT subsidiary B-Mobile is the only operational cellco in the country, although the Tashi Group was granted a wireless licence in April 2007 and is expected to launch services within a year. According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, there were an estimated 105,000 mobile subscribers in Bhutan at the end of June 2007, giving a penetration of around 16%.