According to a joint statement by Nokia and Bharti, Bharti has awarded Nokia with a US$125 million contract to expand its mobile phone networks in eight regions in India over a three-year period. After this period Bharti hopes to cover more than 5,000 towns, which would be a considerable increase in comparison with the approximately 2,700 towns covered at the moment. Bharti recently announced its intention to spend more than US$1 billion overall to increase its coverage in India.