India's Bharti Airtel has contracted Ericsson to roll out an FDD LTE network in Delhi, as the operator seeks to expand its 4G presence in advance of the entry of a new competitor.
The four year deal marks Ericsson's first FDD LTE contract with Airtel. The vendor also has contracts to deploy LTE networks for Airtel in four other telecom circles.
As part of the agreement, Ericsson said it will provide multi-standard radio equipment including base stations, as well as LTE RAN software compatible with the 2G and 3G networks also deployed by Ericsson.
Airtel CTO Abhay Savargaonkar said the deployment is aimed at addressing growing demand for 4G in the Delhi area.
“The Delhi market is currently experiencing a rapid increase in the uptake of data-centric services,” he said.
“As market leaders, we at Airtel are deeply committed towards delivering the best data experience for smartphone users and have made investment in high speed 4G network to improve the data experience of the customer.”
But Airtel is also under pressure to pre-emptively respond to the market entry of pan-India 4G hopeful Reliance Jio Infocomm, which plans to launch services by the end of the year.
To help enhance its ability to compete in the 4G space, Airtel recently arranged to acquire Augere Wireless and its 20 MHz of 4G spectrum in one telecom circle. The operator offers TD-LTE services in 20 cities and numerous towns.