BWA/LTE
TT Correspondent | 31 Aug 2016Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), on Wednesday announced that it has deployed 4G Advanced technology (carrier aggregation across TD LTE and LTE FDD) in Mumbai. The deployment will result in a superior 4G experience for Airtel customers through considerably faster data speeds and better coverage – indoors and outdoors. Customers with mobile devices that support 4G Advanced will be able to enjoy 4G data speeds of up to 135 Mbps.
Airtel launched its 4G services in Mumbai in May 2015 on the 2300 Mhz band using the TD LTE standard and recently added capacity on the 1800 Mhz band using FD LTE. With today’s rollout, Mumbai is among the few cities globally to have high speed data services over 4G Advanced.
Under the carrier aggregation deployment, the capacities of TD LTE (2300 MHz spectrum band) and FD LTE (1800 MHz spectrum band) have been combined to enable better spectrum utilisation and efficiency. In February 2016, Airtel deployed India’s first carrier aggregation in Kerala and the network achieved 4G data speeds of up to 135 Mbps on commercially available mobile devices.
“Airtel has consistently been ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation and technology deployment, in order to deliver a superior mobile experience to its customers. Airtel has led the rollout of 4G services in India and with the deployment of 4G Advanced, we are taking a quantum leap in delivering a superior mobile broadband experience to our customers. With the additional network capacity, customers in Mumbai can look forward considerably improved data speeds and better coverage. We will extend the deployment of 4G Advanced in other geographies in the coming months,” said Ajai Puri, Director – Operations (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel.
The deployment is a part of Airtel’s ongoing network transformation program – Project Leap, under which Airtel plans to invest Rs 60,000 crores over the next three years to meet the growing demand of voice and high speed data services in India and deliver the best network experience to its customers.