Airtel to Deploy Pre-5G Massive MIMO Technology in Karnataka to Deliver Faster 4G Speeds

Telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel, led by Sunil Mittal today revealed its network expansion plans in Karnataka state. During FY19, Airtel is planning to add 13,000 new mobile sites along with 4500 kms of optic fibre across the entire Karnataka state. Airtel is planning this network expansion under the company’s Project Leap, which is a network expansion programme. The telco also confirmed that this expansion would also include pre-5G Massive MIMO technology deployment across major business and residential hubs. With pre-5G Massive MIMO technology deployment, Airtel wants to step-up the data experience to its users in Karnataka.

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Pre-5G Massive MIMO Deliver 5-7 Times Better Speeds

This is not the first time Airtel is making use of the pre-5G Massive MIMO technology. Earlier this year, during Indian Premier League 2018, the telco deployed the same across major IPL venues to enhance the data speeds. For the unaware, Massive MIMO expands network capacities by 5-7 times on the same spectrum and delivers faster data speeds despite a large number of concurrent users at the same location.

To recall, Airtel had recently deployed the solution at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru during the IPL 2018 matches and also states that it received very good feedback from customers.

Airtel 4G Covers 98% of Karnataka’s Population

Right now, Airtel has 29 million customers spread the entire state. Bharti Airtel offers 4G, 3G and 2G data services in the state. At the moment, Airtel 4G is covering 98% of the state’s population. Talking about the announced network deployment, Airtel will enable to add massive high-speed data capacity in the network to serve the explosive surge in data consumption led by increasing smartphone penetration and adoption of digital services.