South Korea’s leading mobile carrier SK Telecom Co. signed a contract with Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel, the world’s third-largest mobile carrier by subscriber, to provide support for long-term evolution (LTE) network operation and Internet of Things (IoT) services.

The Korean telecom company said on Monday that it will offer consultation services on optimizing the quality of LTE network, virtualization solutions and commercializing Internet of Things (IoT) services to Bharti Airtel that is seeking to improve its service quality.

The latest agreement comes after the two firms formed a strategic partnership in September to apply SK Telecom’s artificial intelligence (AI)-based network solution to India’s nationwide telecom network run by the New Delhi-based company by 2019. The value of the latest deal is not disclosed, but the previous contract, which included export of network solution technology, was reported to be worth up to 100 billion won ($93.5 million).

The Indian mobile communication market has been burgeoning by more than 10 percent annually with explosive growth in the number of subscribers and data traffic, which results in intense competition among local wireless carriers. The India’s largest telecom company with 380 million subscribers and the world’s third largest by subscribers has tripled its base stations across India over the past two years.

An official from SK Telecom said that Bharti Airtel wanted to expand its partnership to consulting after recognizing SK Telecom’s technological prowess through the network technology transfer partnership, and added that the two firms plan to further cooperate in other sectors such as fifth-generation (5G) network and IoT.

By Seo Dong-cheol and Choi Mira

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