Airtel to deploy 7,000 new mobile broadband sites in Mumbai

The roll-out would translate to the addition of one new mobile site in Mumbai every hour throughout the year. This is part of its ‘Project Leap’ initiative announced on November 30, 2015.

In addition, Airtel also plans to integrate an additional spectrum carrier of 10 MHz in the 2300 MHz band to strengthen its 4G footprint. 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 five to seven times on the same spectrum, 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.

“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 7,000 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,” Amit Tripathi, chief executive officer,  Mumbai, Bharti Airtel, said.

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

Under Project Leap, Airtel will invest Rs60,000 crore over the next three years to upgrade its network across the country. Airtel will deploy over 160,000 base stations nationwide, and also expand its mobile broadband coverage to over 500,000 villages. It will also introduce several technologies such as small cells, carrier aggregation solutions, WiFi hotspots, and several different spectrum bands to improve network coverage in indoor areas. The company will also deploy more than 5,50,000 km of domestic and international fibre, and upgrade its legacy networks and base stations over the three-year period.

The New Delhi-based company on Wednesday said it plans to roll out 5,000 new mobile sites across Kerala in the current financial year. With this planned rollout, the number of Airtel’s mobile sites across Kerala will go up by 30 per cent to 22,000.

The New Delhi-based company also plans to roll out 500km of fresh optic fibre across the state, increasing its fibre footprint to 6,000km. The addition of fresh fibre capacity will support the growth of high speed data services in the state.

“Kerala is an important market for us and we are committed to expanding our high speed data networks to every corner of the state. As part of Project Leap, we will continue to aggressively invest in building a world class future ready network in Kerala,” Manoj Murali, CEO - Tamil Nadu & Kerala said.

Airtel was the first operator to launch 4G services in Kerala. Airtel also launched India’s first 4G advanced in Kochi combining capacities of TD LTE (2300 MHz spectrum band) and FD LTE (1800 MHz spectrum band).