Announcing the strategic alliance at a joint press conference, ITI chairman and managing director Air CMDE S S Motial and Ericssons managing director Jan Campbell said the MOU would facilitate ITI to complete and update its product portfolio with carrier class solutions.

Though initially no new investments would be needed, ITI which would have the exclusive right of marketing the Ericsson Internet telephony could at a later date go in for manufacture under transfer of technology if the market developed substantially, Air CMDE Motial said. The present tie up placed ITI as a total solution provider, he added.

He said the company which had already allied with Compaq for network solutions and Krone Communications for broadband technology was in consultations with four major software giants to forge strategic alliances in the area of telecom software. It would soon fructify, he added.

He said the association with Ericsson was in tune with the ITI's new focus on emerging opportunities from the convergence of technologies.

It was today emerging as a leading solutions provider for the ice market.

Campbell said the MOU reiterated Ericsson's leading position as a supplier of voice over Internet solution and other data switching products. Ericsson had already bagged contracts with DOT for C type Internet nodes covering over 250 district headquarters all over the country.