Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile provider by subscribers, has deployed 4G LTE services in Jharkhand, and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) in major cities of Tamil Nadu as part of its INR600 billion (USD8.75 billion) Project Leap development plan. The Economic Times writes that 4G services using dual spectrum bands in the 1800MHz (frequency division duplex LTE [FDD-LTE]) and 2300MHz (time division duplex LTE [TD-LTE]) ranges are now available in Hazaribagh, Godda, Lohardaga, Pakur, Jamtara, Giridih and Barhi in Jharkhand. Meanwhile, LTE-A services, aggregating the two bands to provide download speeds of up to 135Mbps, have been launched in Chennai, Madurai, Hosur, Vellore, Pondy, Trichy, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruppur.
Commenting on the development, George Mathen, Airtel’s hub CEO for Kerala Tamil Nadu said: ‘We launched Tamil Nadu’s first 4G network in 2015 and with the deployment of 4G Advanced we are all set to deliver a superior mobile broadband experience to our customers. With 4G Advanced customers in the state can look forward to considerably improved data speeds and better coverage. We will extend the deployment of 4G Advanced across identified towns in Tamil Nadu in the coming months’.