Airtel 4G News

Airtel, which has 4G spectrum
in Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Punjab and Kolkata has
selected LTE technology and
will start services soon.
Airtel, which has 4G spectrum in
Maharastra, Karnataka, Punjab
and Kolkata, is all set to offer 4G
services. The teleco has selected
LTE (TD) 4G technology and will
start services soon.
The company will work with Nokia
Siemens to roll out the network
and manage it in the
Maharashtra circle. The network
will be capable of delivering up to
100 Mbps speed to end
consumers.
Airtel said in a statement, "The
launch of commercial TD-LTE
services later this year will offer
Bharti Airtel subscribers in
Maharashtra a much improved
experience when using
bandwidth-intensive applications,
with more consistent network
coverage and faster response
times (low latency)."
No further detail about the
service has been released. Other
companies which will also offer
4G services include Reliance
Infotel (22 circles), BSNL (20
circles), Aircel (8 circles), Tikona
(5 circles), Qualcomm (4 circles),
MTNL (2 circles) and Augere (1
circle).
While BSNL and MTNL have used
WiMax so far, all the other
networks will be based on LTE
standard. Augere has already
announced that it will start
commercial operation by April
while Reliance has set the
deadline to mid 2012. All the
other operators are expected to
roll-out services by June-July
this year.
The only player whose plans
might hit a road black is
Qualcomm, a technology vendor
that entered the auction for this
spectrum only to ensure that
LTE is chosen as the technology
for roll-out. However, it is yet to
find a partner who would actually
roll-out the service.