Ericsson is back with a bang! It will provide 4G and 3G services for Airtel in India

Taking the battle of 4G to the next level, Swedish telecom company Ericsson announced on Wednesday that it has bagged a contract to roll out 4G services for India’s leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel’s subscribers in Delhi.

This four-year agreement marks the first LTE-FDD rollout by Ericsson in the capital.

Talking about the tie-up, Abhay Savargaonkar, CTO, Bharti Airtel elaborated on the rapid increase in the up-take of data-centric services experienced in the Delhi circle. “This ultimately means that we as market leaders should be able to improve the data-experience of the customer and we hope through our partnership with Ericsson, we are able to offer a world-class 4G experience for every Delhi customer.”

As part of its contract, Ericsson will deploy its LTE RAN software for Bharti Airtel and apart from Delhi, it has also partnered with Bharti Airtel for the deployment of LTE networks in four other circles.

Strengthening its partnership with Bharti Airtel further, Ericsson at its flagship technology event ‘Ericsson Connect’ here in Delhi also announced that it has bagged a four-year contract to expand Airtel’s 3GWCDMA network across eight telecom circles in India.

“Consumers in India are rapidly embracing smartphones and mobile internet as a source of information and environment. This growing demand can only be addressed by superior data services, which we believe we would provide by expanding Bharti Airtel’s 3G WCDMA network,” said Paolo Colella, Head of Region India, Ericsson.

The 3G expansion contract includes rollout of 3G services in both 2100 MHz bands and 900 MHz (in three circles). Under the deal, Ericsson will also supply, install and perform manage services for WCDMA radio access networks.