09.13.2004, 06:44 AM
Nokia has signed a contract with the Libyan post office for a nationwide mobile network and equipment, in a deal valued at euro120 million (US$146 million), the Finnish company said Monday.
The world's largest mobile phone maker will supply Libyan General Post and Telecommunications Company with a GSM/EDGE and WCDMA 3G network. It is Nokia's first network deal in Libya, and deliveries will begin immediately, the company said.
Under the agreement, Nokia will be the main supplier of the new operator's core network and will also supply half of a radio network that will serve the capital, Tripoli, and the western half of the country.
It will also provide network planning, other services and training to maintain the competitiveness of GPTC's new network, Nokia said.
Nokia, whose mobile phone sales account for 80 percent of total revenue, has increasingly focused on the handset market as its ailing networks division continues to show poor returns.
Based in Espoo, just outside the Finnish capital, Nokia has sales in 130 countries with 53,000 employees.