In response to people familiar with the matter, Reliance Jio Infocomm is set to sign a $1.7 billion (13,980 crore) contract with Finland's Nokia this week to purchase 5G network equipment.

According to the people, the contract could be signed as early as Thursday at Nokia's headquarters near Helsinki, where senior executives from Reliance Industries' telecom unit and the banks financing the purchase will be present.

This is in addition to the $2.1 billion in equipment purchased from Sweden's Ericsson by India's largest telecom operator in order to roll out 5G mobile broadband services across the country by the end of the year.

HSBC, JP Morgan, and Citigroup are among the global banks backing Jio in its efforts to finance these 5G equipment deals with Nokia and Ericsson through syndicated offshore loans totaling nearly $4 billion. Jio is contacting large foreign banks to secure loans to fund the Ericsson 5G contract.

As the sole owner of 5G airwaves in the highly efficient 700 MHz band, Mukesh Ambani's telco has chosen the standalone mode for its countrywide rollout of the next-generation communication technology, as it will not be dependent on the existing 4G network. For network deployment, it is primarily collaborating with European vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia.

European export credit agency Finnvera will be issuing the guarantees to the global lenders for extending the offshore loans to Jio. Such guarantees are aimed at boosting the comfort levels of the lenders and will reduce the overall funding costs.