Ericsson on Friday announced a seven-year managed services contract with Reliance Communications that spans all 22 of India's telecom circles.

The deal builds on an existing agreement between the two companies, and marks the Swedish equipment maker's first nationwide managed services deal in India. It covers field maintenance, network operations and operational planning for RCom's 2G, 3G, and CDMA networks, as well as its fixed access network and its 150,000 kilometre fibre network.

According to The Times of India, the deal is likely worth more than $1 billion.

"Given the complexity of networks and the growing performance expectations from customers, we are banking on the experience, innovation and technical expertise of Ericsson to improve the productivity of our network and ensure customer satisfaction and retention by delivering superior network performance and service quality at optimised costs," said Suresh Rangachar, head of commercial at Reliance Communications, in a statement.

Ericsson said it will also work with RCom to identify opportunities to introduce new services and expand its existing businesses.

"We are excited to partner with Reliance Communications for this strategic multi-technology managed services deal," said Magnus Mandersson, head of Ericsson's global services division.

"We have been managing their networks in the north and west and are now pleased to extend this support to all 22 circles," he said. "The growing uptake in the use of new technologies requires an increased focus on customer experience management, and that will be our focus as we take on this mandate."