Nokia has secured a new 4G deal reported to be worth USD$230 million from Bharti Airtel, the largest mobile operator in India. Nokia will help Airtel to expand the deployment of 4G technology to enhance coverage and access in urban, suburban and rural areas across nine circles in India.
In the 2016 MBiT Index Nokia reported an eightfold increase in India's 4G LTE device ecosystem for 2015, while other statistics show that access to news, video content, gaming and social media accounts for 60 percent of India's total mobile data traffic - and it is rising.
To address this growth, Bharti Airtel has acquired more mobile broadband spectrum. The new agreement with Nokia will see it expand the deployment of 4G technology in three new circles in addition to six circles it already serves, enabling launch of new services that started in September. Bharti Airtel will be able to provide improved coverage and faster mobile Internet access, while laying the foundation for the delivery of enhanced video services and other on-demand applications.
Nokia will deploy its 4G FDD-LTE & TD-LTE technology across nine of Bharti Airtel's circles in India including the regions of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rest of Bengal, Odisha, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Kerala and UP East, serving major cities such as Lucknow, Ahmendabad, Patna and SiliguriNokia will also expand the operator's 3G network in eight of the territories as part of this rollout and modernization of legacy 2G BTSThe rollout uses Nokia's radio access with Single RAN technology for FDD-LTE and TD-LTE.
Sanjay Malik, head of India Market at Nokia
We have a long history of working with Bharti Airtel and with this latest agreement we have become the largest supplier of 4G for the company. This network expansion will provide the capacity, coverage and speeds the company needs to meet the next wave of data demand in India.
