Airtel to expand 4G in 6 more circles; inks pact with Nokia

Telecom major Bharti Airtel today signed a deal with Nokia Networks to launch high-speed 4G services in six more telecom circles, comprising 11 states, starting from December this year.

The new circles where Airtel will launch 4G services are- Andhra Pradesh, North East (7 states), Punjab, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Karnataka, sources said.

Airtel has plans to launch 4G services in Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, North East and Punjab by December 2015, Karnataka by February 2016 and Rajasthan by April 2016, sources added.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel Chief Technology Officer Abhay Savargaonkar in a statement said: "Having already launched the high-speed 4G services across four circles of India, we are now looking at extending this enriching high-speed broadband experience to new circles on 1800 MHz band."

The deployment in these circles will be on a different type of 4G technology called FDD-LTE.
"We are happy to expand our TD-LTE footprint with Bharti and partner with them to deploy India’s first FDD-LTE in six new circles," Nokia Networks Vice President and Head of India Region Sandeep Girotra said.

Globally, there are 360 network providing 4G services and out of this 158 network use FDD-LTE technology, as per Global mobile Suppliers Association, implying better eco-system and availability of affordable devices for this technology.

Indian firms, including Airtel, have so far launched 4G service on TDD LTE technology.
Nokia Networks, already a supplier of Bharti Airtel's TD-LTE network, will also deploy TD-LTE on the 2300 MHz in 2 other circles, the statement said. Sources said that these two circles are Mumbai and Kerala.