Nokia bags 4G deployment, 3G expansion deal from Bharti Airtel

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia said that it has inked a new deal with Bharti Airtel to 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.

Nokia will deploy its 4G FDD-LTE and 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 Siliguri.

The deployment will allow Bharti Airtel, which recently acquired more mobile broadband spectrum to address data growth, 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.

The gear vendor will also expand the operator’s 3G network in eight of the territories as part of this rollout and modernization of legacy 2G base stations.

“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,” Sanjay Malik, head of India Market at Nokia, said in a statement.

The 4G rollout uses Nokia’s radio access with Single RAN technology for FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. The gear vendor said that it will provide professional services including network integration and network planning and optimization

“We are pleased to continue to leverage Nokia’s leading radio access technology and services expertise to expand 4G capacity and coverage and further increase the quality of service for subscribers,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.