If you are disappointed to know Airtel did not launch 4G on March 20, be excited as it is coming fast. As per our sources Airtel may launch LTE-TDD based wireless broadband services in the first half of April, 2012 in Kolkata.
Last week the rumor of Airtel's 4G launch in Kolkata hit internet and a lot of people, if not everyone had gone crazy to hear it.
Airtel had won spectrum for high-speed wireless broadband service in four telecom circles namely Kolkata, Maharashtra, Punjab and Karnataka and paid Rs 3,314.36 crore in 2010. The company was allocated 20 Mhz of BWA spectrum in 2.3 Ghz frequency band.
There is a rumour that ZTE may be the equipment partner for Airtel in Kolkata, while tower deal will be done with Indus Towers along with Bharti Infratel. Indus is largest tower company over the globe.
As 2.3 GHz spectrum band will have poor indoor coverage, it is expected Airtel will deploy small cells (femto cells) at places to provide better coverage. It is expected that at this initial stage of LTE roll out the coverage will be scarce and will be available at some pockets of the city. We expect that Airtel may use microwave and fiber optic based backhaul provider to support this ultra high speed wireless services.
At this stage industry leader Airtel is expected to come up with some dongles and some tablets to offer bundled data plans on 4G. This band of LTE spectrum (2.3GHz) is a new band if compared to western countries, as a result Indian private BWA service providers have to make some wise decision to roll out yet to mature LTE services. Many analysis say that in 5 years, LTE will have 20 miillion customers in India.
If we check the history, Kolkata was the first city to have mobile services (2G) in 1995, and today 2G is widely accepted. Can we see the same success with 4G if started with Kolkata?
Now we ask you can 4G be a superhit in India or will a be a flop show whats your take do share your views via comments.
