Ericsson gets $300 mln Warid Telecom Pakistan deal

ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi-based Warid Telecom said on Sunday it awarded a $300 million contract to Sweden's Ericsson to expand its network in Pakistan.

Telecom equipment maker Ericsson said on Tuesday it had won the order to expand and upgrade the GSM/GPRS network of Warid Telecom, without giving financial details of the deal.

"The GSM network extension in Pakistan gives us additional capacity for 5 million customers and coverage of additional 100 cities," Warid's CEO Bashir Tahir told Reuters after the contract signing. Warid, the third-largest operator in Pakistan, now covers 250 cities.

Singapore Telecommunications bought a 30 percent stake in Warid in June for $758 million.

Warid has also launched GSM and Wymax services in Uganda and GSM services in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tahir said.

Warid is currently building a GSM network in the Ivory Coast and the former Soviet state of Georgia. "We expect to become operational before the end of 2008 in these places," he said.

Warid will continue to finance its expansion partly through equity and debt from banks and export credit agencies, he added.

Warid Telecom is part of Abu Dhabi Group, owned by a member of the Gulf Arab emirate's ruling family.