Bharti Airtel Sunday told it has deployed an additional 10MHz spectrum in the 2300MHz band sideways with network software tools such as pre-5G Massive MIMO, 4G Advanced, and Carrier Aggregation, in North East India to improve network capacity and coverage.
“The deployment will strengthen an already superior network for Airtel customers across the region. It will enable improved network availability and data speeds as more and more people access high-speed data services from their smart device,” the Sunil Mittal-led telco stated in a statement.
Bharti Airtel had attained the 10MHz spectrum for North East during the spectrum auctions conducted by the Department of Telecommunications in March.
With this fresh spectrum, it has a spectrum holding of 70MHz in the North East, across 2300, 2100, 1800, and 900 bands, making the network ready for 5G services, the statement further said.
“We are aggressively expanding our network in the North-East by investing in the new spectrum and network upgrades to provide a world-class experience to our customers. With the new deployment in the 2300 Mhz band, we have addressed the surging demand for high-speed data in the region by building network capacity for a future-ready network,” stated Sovan Mukherjee, CEO-Assam and North East, Bharti Airtel.
This deployment comes after the second-largest telco in India, on Friday exhibited an additional 10MHz spectrum in the 2300MHz band in Gujarat.
Former last week, it rolled out 11.2MHz and 5MHz of spectrum, respectively, in Karnataka and Kerala to bolster high-speed data capacity.
In the auction in March, Airtel attained 355.45MHz of spectrum worth Rs 18,699 crore while market leader Jio purchased a total of 488.35MHz spectrum in 22 circles for Rs 57,123 crore.
Subsequently both telcos have 5G-ready networks, they bulked up on crucial airwaves to cater to the rush in data usage and future-proof themselves ahead of 5G rollouts.
