India’s leading telecom network services provider GTL has recently joined hands with the UK based Ericsson UK to provide Managed Network Infrastructure Services (MNIS) jointly in the UK. GTL Ltd is part of the Global Group; its estimated FY 08 revenues are Rs 2,400 crore.

Ericsson is the largest supplier of mobile systems in the world and supports all standards for wireless communication. It provides total solutions - from systems and applications to services and core technology for mobile handsets.

GTL said it would be established a wholly owned special purpose vehicle (GTL Managed Services UK Ltd) in the UK for the purpose, Investing £50 million (Rs 390 crore) in it over the next three years.

Ericsson, which offers managed services for telecom operators, will use GTL’s expertise in site infrastructure. TL will construct and manage close to 1,000 telecommunications towers in the UK and re-align 5,000 existing ones in the next three years, GTL might own the towers eventually and leverage Ericsson’s brand positioning to procure customers among UK telecom service providers such as Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

The association with Ericsson is expected to take GTL’s EBITDA margin to 12% in three years, from the current 9%, Chairman & Managing Director, GTL Mr. Tirodkar said.

At 12:20pm, the scrip of GTL Ltd was at Rs 262.55 up 1.37% from the previous closer marked exactly at Rs 255.00. The index of the stock touched the high of Rs 269 after the recovering from the low of Rs 246.30 intraday on NSE (Wednesday).