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Airtel to further strengthen its network footprint in Mumbai

TT Correspondent | 07 Jun 2018

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”), India’s largest telecommunications service provider has announced massive network deployment plans for Mumbai as part of its network transformation initiative - Project Leap.

During FY 18-19, Airtel plans to rollout 7000 new mobile sites including large scale deployment of pre-5G Massive MIMO technology across Mumbai to significantly boost network capacity for high speed data and voice services. The roll-out would translate to the addition of one new mobile site to Airtel’s future-ready network in Mumbai every hour throughout the year.

In addition, Airtel also plans to integrate an additional spectrum carrier of 10 MHz in the 2300 MHz band to further strengthen its 4G footprint. While stepping up high speed data capacities and significantly enhancing the network speed and coverage across the city, the deployment will further add to the customer experience in India’s financial capital.

The pre-5G Massive MIMO technology will be deployed across all major business hubs and residential locations in the city. Massive MIMO, which expands network capacities by 5-7 times on the same spectrum, and delivers superfast data speeds despite large number of concurrent users at the same location. Airtel had recently deployed the solution at Wankhede Stadium throughout the IPL.

Amit Tripathi, Chief Executive Officer – Mumbai, Bharti Airtel Ltd, adds, “As part of our endeavour to build a future ready network to deliver best-in-class experience to our customers, we are stepping up investments considerably by adding 7000 new sites and 10 MHz of TDD LTE spectrum. Airtel has pioneered the rollout of Massive MIMO in India and we are now undertaking large scale deployments of the cutting-edge technology in key business and residential hubs across Mumbai. This will truly add to the smartphone experience for Airtel customers in the city.”

The planned roll-out will augment the current network in Mumbai by 30%, taking the total number of sites in the city to 27,000. The optic fiber footprint in the city is also set to get a boost with the addition of 400 KMs of fresh fiber, taking the total footprint to 2700 KMs and enabling superior high speed data transmission.

Airtel is already witnessing a steady surge in its VoLTE traffic in Mumbai on the back of the availability of a seamless 4G network with fallback capability. With the fast growing availability of more Airtel VoLTE compatible handsets, more customers will be able to enjoy HD voice quality, faster call set up with Airtel VOLTE.

Network highlights of Airtel Mumbai:
- High speed 4G services launched in May 2015
- Carrier Aggregation 4G+ launched in Aug 2016
- VoLTE services launched in Sep 2017
- 4G offered on combination of FD LTE 1800 MHz and TD LTE 2300 MHz spectrum
- 3300 new mobile sites and 200 KMs of fiber added during FY 18