Infotel Broadband – the Indian greenfield operator owned by Reliance Industries – has begun speaking to vendors about rolling-out its planned nationwide TD-LTE network in what could be one of the country’s largest ever equipment deals. According to a report in India’s Business Standard, the contracts could be worth over US$2 billion and vendors invited to “demonstrate their LTE capability” include Huawei, Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks. In addition, Samsung has reportedly been approached regarding the bulk-buying of tablet PC devices such as the Galaxy Tab. Infotel is also talking to leading tower companies to lease 60,000 towers across the country for its pan-India launch in the first phase, which will focus on rolling out the new network to 700 cities. While no deadlines have been given, vendors say the company might start the rollout of its network in the next three to four months and could launch services in some parts of the country by year end.

Infotel acquired a nationwide Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) licence last year and was subsequently acquired by Reliance Industries. However, while the spectrum was originally geared towards WiMAX, Infotel announced trials of TD-LTE using the airwaves last November. According to the report, this week’s news that Infotel is vetting potential LTE vendors is “a clear reflection that it has finally abandoned any plan to launch its services on the WIMAX platform.” Qualcomm – another winner of BWA spectrum – is pursuing a similar TD-LTE strategy in India.