Indian operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday awarded Nokia an estimated $400m (£210m) contract to expand its managed GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks in eight circles and deploy a WAP solution across its infrastructure.

Under a three year contract, Nokia will provide managed services and expand Airtel networks to cover all towns and cities in the eight telecom circles of Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Bihar, Orissa, Kolkata, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

The Finnish vendor will also deploy a WAP gateway, which will enable easy usage of data services and increase the consumption of content on the Airtel network, the operator said.