India’s Bharti Airtel says that it has launched the country’s first commercial LTE service in Kolkata. Airtel’s 4G network was launched by Mr. Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to now provide leadership in setting the technology standard for 4G services in India by introducing the cutting edge TD-LTE. We are confident that others will follow in this direction and participate in our pioneering effort of making TD-LTE the defacto 4G standard in India.”
In 2010, Airtel had successfully bid for BWA license spectrum in Kolkata, Karnataka, Punjab and Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai) circles. The company said that it is currently working towards rolling out mobile broadband networks in other circles.
Airtel had previously awarded network deployment contracts to ZTE for Kolkata and Nokia Siemens Networks for Maharashtra. It’s not currently clear if the company has awarded network contracts for Karnataka or Punjab.