Bharti Airtel starts rollout of 4G on 900 MHz

Bharti Airtel customers may soon be able to experience better 4G data speeds even indoors as the telco begins the rollout of the technology using spectrum in the highly efficient 900 MHz band across 10 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai.

Randeep Sekhon, chief technology officer at Bharti Airtel, said introduction of LTE 900 technology is primarily aimed at boosting our indoor network coverage, and 4G availability will also contribute to an increase in traffic on voice over LTE (VoLTE).

The Sunil Mittal-led telco is working with Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE to execute deployment across Mumbai, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, North East, Assam and Rajasthan. “We see healthy growth in VoLTE traffic volume as more customers upgrade to 4G smartphones.


This will also decongest 2G/3G networks that carry a bulk of voice traffic and free up spectrum that can be reframed for 4G,” said Sekhon.

Bharti Airtel has liberalised 900 Mhz spectrum available in these markets and deployment is aimed at creating new 4G capacity. Airtel had last month conducted India’s first LAA trial over a LIVE 4G network with Ericsson.