Nortel has won a deal worth more than US$100 million with India's largest telecom services provider.

The Toronto-based network equipment maker, which has major operations in Ottawa, said it has signed an agreement with Indian state-run firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) to provide GSM cellphone connectivity throughout the southern area of the country.

BSNL, which has more than 20 million cellular subscribers, has been a Nortel customer since 2004. Nortel has helped BSNL provide mobile service to roughly seven million subscribers in the southern and eastern parts of India.

"India represents an enormous opportunity for Nortel in the carrier space, with its consistently high growth rates and increasingly mobile population," said Nortel carrier networks president Richard Lowe in a statement. "We have redesigned our GSM portfolio with this kind of opportunity in mind, making our solution much more cost-competitive, without compromising the performance, capacity and coverage for which Nortel is renowned."

Nortel said it has already started rolling out the BSNL network expansion, and said the project is expected to be completed towards the end of 2008.